But a relatively low rate of returns in vote-by-mail ballots in California suggested voters were waiting to make up their minds. That could help Biden pick up delegates, and he made a late add to his schedule — a stop in Oakland — to increase his footprint in a state where Biden’s campaign has been less active than others. Biden will be in Los Angeles in the evening, holding an event at a community center in Baldwin Hills.
Most observers now expect Biden, like Sanders, to reach the 15 percent viability threshold necessary to win statewide delegates in California. The question is whether Sanders’ strength in the state, coupled with Biden’s surge, can prevent Warren and Bloomberg from reaching that same threshold, which could divide the state’s massive delegate haul in a way that nudges everyone further from a delegate majority.
-David Siders
Mike Bloomberg
As Bloomberg makes his primary debut Tuesday, he won’t be in California, Texas, his native Massachusetts or any other Super Tuesday state. He’ll be in Florida, which has its presidential primary on March 17.
Bloomberg is holding events across Miami, Orlando and West Palm Beach, his third campaign stop in the state since he entered the race in late November. Pressure has mounted on him to withdraw as Biden looks to consolidate moderates ahead of an anticipated long delegate slog against Sanders and Warren.
Bloomberg’s team wants to see him finish in one of the top spots in the total delegate count by night’s end, but they’ve made no commitments about staying in the 2020 race much beyond that that if Bloomberg isn’t a clear contender. Bloomberg on Monday night didn’t rule out endorsing Biden if it came down to it. He also sounded the alarm on Sanders, calling his policy proposals “crazy.”
Bloomberg starts the day at his Little Havana Field Office in Miami before heading to Orlando over lunch and ending the day with a results-watching party at the Grand Ballroom, Palm Beach Convention Center — just a stone’s throw from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
-Chris Cadelago
Bernie Sanders
Sanders is rolling into Super Tuesday with sky-high expectations.
Even after Biden’s commanding victory in South Carolina and his rapid consolidation of moderate Democratic leaders in the last 24 hours, Sanders is still the frontrunner — and his campaign is still optimistic.
“Watching the campaign, watching the 10 debates unfold, we believe they have constantly shown that Bernie is the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump, and that’s still the case. And we think we still are in a very strong position heading into Super Tuesday,” Sanders’ deputy campaign manager, Ari Rabin-Havt, told reporters at a rally in Salt Lake City Monday.
Political observers across the spectrum believe Sanders is on track to win California, the biggest delegate prize of the day. His team hopes that and victories and strong finishes in other states will build a delegate lead that will make it difficult, if not impossible, for his rivals to catch up.
The Vermont senator is holding a primary night rally in his home city of Burlington. His campaign has not announced any events beyond that.
-Holly Otterbein
Elizabeth Warren
Warren will be taking a red eye flight from Los Angeles — where she is taping several TV interviews and delivering a speech — to Boston on Monday night so that she can vote in her home state primary Tuesday morning. Her appearance with Jimmy Kimmel aired Monday night, while an interview with Ellen DeGeneres will air on Tuesday during the day.
Source: politico.com
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