“The floodgates have opened,” a Biden confidant said last week, in reference to both fundraising and promised endorsements that were rolling in after that poll but before South Carolina voters went to the polls.
On the eve of Super Tuesday, the shift in the 2020 race was in full force. Money gushed in: $10 million in 48 hours. The Biden campaign enjoyed a windfall of support from members of Congress, influential African American leaders and elected officials across pivotal states. It was capped by the rapid withdrawal of two other moderate top-tier contenders in the race — Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. They, along with a third former 2020 candidate, Beto O’Rourke, swiftly turned to back Biden. Buttigieg, Klobuchar and O’Rourke joined Biden at a Dallas rally Monday evening.
All day Monday, the campaign pushed out one endorsement after another: 100 leaders in Massachusetts, 30 officials in Virginia, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, major congressional leaders in Texas and California, local leaders in North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas. Biden’s sudden resurgence — his ability to at least partially clear the field and coalesce support — could prove to be a major turning point in a volatile 2020 primary.
The rush to get off the sidelines to back Biden came after his resounding South Carolina win, which signaled to the Democratic establishment that Biden would soon become the last standing moderate poised to attract a diversity of voters and credibly position himself as the alternative to Bernie Sanders. For backers, it was the final chance before Super Tuesday to help Biden build much-needed momentum. His dearth of fundraising meant his organizational infrastructure, not to mention TV advertising, was greatly lacking across 14 states, even as an outsize number of delegates were at stake.
Running against the Super Tuesday clock, the behind-the-scenes chatter quickly moved into full pledges of support from members of Congress, African American leaders and elected officials.
The campaign’s play was to roll them out in dramatic fashion, to maximize the bounce out of South Carolina with another day of headlines.
“It’s raining endorsements right now, from every corner of the country, so much so that it’s like drinking out of a fire hose, our vetting machine is having a difficult time keeping up,” a Biden adviser told POLITICO.
Source: politico.com
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