Biden joins Warren, Sanders with Super Tuesday focus

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden takes selfies with crowd after he spoke at Hillside High School in Durham, NC on Sunday, Oct 27, 2019. Approximately 850 people attended rally in Durham. Joe Biden is expanding his presidential campaign footprint in Super Tuesday states and general election battlegrounds in latest sign that Democrats’ top White House contenders foresee a potentially lengthy minating process in 2020. former vice president is hiring a top national campaign aide to focus on March 3 Super Tuesday primaries, along with state-based directors in California and Massachusetts and a senior viser for Florida.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who has joined Biden as Democrats’ top tier, have me significant investments alrey in Super Tuesday. But Biden campaign believes his current coalition of support is more racially and geographically diverse than his opponents’ and will boost his delegate haul on Super Tuesday and in primaries that follow. early jockeying in states that fall later in primary calendar underscores how much of a delegate-by-delegate fight Democrats could end up having well after first four minating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Neva and South Carolina have cast ir primary and caucus ballots.

“We’ve always viewed Super Tuesday and beyond as our path to mination,” said Pete Kavanaugh, a top Biden aide who oversees campaign’s state operations and overall delegate strategy.

hires, Kavanaugh told Associated Press, “are a reflection of delegates at stake” beyond initial four states that command so much media attention and travel time from candidates. Molly Ritner, a veteran of different Democratic Party roles, will coordinate Biden’s Super Tuesday campaigns from a post at his Philelphia hequarters. Ritner most recently was a political director for House Democrats’ campaign arm but left in a staff shakeup. Jessica Meija, former a top political strategist for Emily’s List, will le Biden’s California campaign. California has more than 400 delegates at stake or more than 20% of 2000 or so that will be needed to win mination. ( Democratic National Committee has t finalized delegate counts for 50 states, territories and Democrats Abro.)

Biden’s campaign in Massachusetts, Warren’s home state, will be led by John Lat. An aide to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Lat most recently mand Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s 2017 reelection campaign. Coming after recent campaign finance disclosures showing Biden with much less cash on hand than Warren and Sanders, hiring moves serve as an almost defiant answer from former vice president to Democratic dors openly fretting over wher he can mount a full-fledged national operation. Biden reported having a bit less than $9 million at end of September, compared with Warren’s $25.7 million and Sanders’ $33 million. Even Sen. Kamala Harris and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, candidates with more ground to gain, h more money on hand than Biden.

“This is a marathon,” Biden said in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview brocast Sunday, ding that he is “t worried about being able to fund this campaign” and still sees himself as clear front-runner.

polls suggest a more complicated dynamic.

Biden has led most national polls since he joined race in April, but he’s slipped some as or candidates, most tably Warren, have risen. Warren also has improved her position considerably in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Neva, while Sanders, making his second presidential bid after finishing as runner-up for 2016 minating process, maintains a considerable base. Polls suggest, however, that Biden has comfortable les among n-white voters and does well among more moderate whites, while white liberals fuel Warren’s apparent momentum. question for Warren is wher she can expand her current base to reflect party’s diversity. For Biden, questions are how well he does in earliest states — Iowa and New Hampshire — that may lean more to Warren, Sanders and even Buttigieg and wher any underperformance re causes a shakeup in his coalition going forward.

Biden aides have said previously that Biden doesn’t have to win eir of first two states to win mination. That hasn’t happened since 1992 when n-Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas didn’t build momentum until race went to his native South.But Kavanaugh rejected tion that Biden’s emphasis on more diverse states is an abandonment of Iowa or New Hampshire. Kavanaugh also ted that Democrats don’t award delegates exclusively to statewide winners, in early states or beyond, but inste use a complicated proportional distribution. Some delegates are awarded based on state results, ors by congressional district results. Texas uses state Senate districts. But in every case, only candidates with at least 15% of vote in jurisdiction can get delegates. Kavanaugh argued that Biden “is only candidate” who can meet that 15% threshold in every district.

“We have been incredibly focused on first four states,” he said. But “ math is math.”