Jim Clyburn knows who he’ll back in SC’s primary – and he’s under pressure to endorse
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn says he has already decided who will get his vote in South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary.
But he hasn’t decided whether he will tell voters his 2020 choice before the Feb. 29 contest — a move that would be tantamount to an endorsement.
His reticence is now causing some serious anxiety among the presidential campaigns eager to know whether the U.S. House majority whip — the highest-ranking black congressman and South Carolina’s most influential Democrat — will intervene with a consequential, perhaps game-changing endorsement in the final days before South Carolina Democrats head to the polls.
“All he needs to do is utter the words — the first name and last name — and I think that would move the needle,” said U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Missouri, of how Clyburn’s endorsement could change the dynamics in a narrowing but still crowded, and competitive, field.
As the state’s longest-serving member of Congress currently in office, Clyburn has represented the state’s only majority-minority U.S. House district since 1993 and, in that role, acts as a gatekeeper to the Democratic Party’s key electorate: African Americans.
And for Clyburn, pressure to take a position in a presidential election — along with the political fallout that can follow either way — is nothing new.
In 2008, he remained neutral in the South Carolina contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But, in the final days before the primary, he publicly criticized Clinton for saying “it took a president” — Lyndon B. Johnson — to enact landmark civil rights legislation promoted by Martin Luther King, Jr.
When Obama won the primary, former President Bill Clinton called to berate Clyburn in the middle of the night on his wife’s behalf, accusing Clyburn of tipping the scales and making the contest about race.
In 2016, Clyburn declined to endorse Hillary Clinton over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont until a week before the state primary. He did so not because he feared Sanders would win in South Carolina, but as a means of strengthening Clinton’s so-called “firewall” with black voters ahead of subsequent state primaries.
That history explains why campaign operatives and surrogates now are particularly anxious about whether Clyburn will endorse former Vice President Joe Biden, who did not boast strong showings in the nation’s first two nominating contests and is now staking his success on the strength of his victory in South Carolina.
With Iowa and New Hampshire’s contests in the rearview mirror, Biden returned his focus to the Palmetto State late Tuesday, showing up at a Columbia launch party for his campaign just as Granite State primary votes were coming in.
Like Clinton did four years ago, Biden is expected to do well in the South Carolina primary thanks to his widespread support with African Americans who make up more than 60 percent of the state’s Democratic primary electorate.
But also like Clinton, Biden could use an overwhelming victory that can buoy him going into “Super Tuesday,” where voting will occur in 14 states. Clyburn’s endorsement could facilitate that victory, Biden supporters say.
“I think he’ll do quite well” in South Carolina, said U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., a Biden supporter. “We’re just trying to make sure that he wins overwhelmingly.”
Clyburn’s endorsement also could provide Biden the boost he needs to winnow down his field of rivals further, allies add.
“I think it starts the dominoes falling” in Biden’s favor, said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, a former 2020 presidential candidate who is now backing Biden.
In South Carolina, the significance of Clyburn’s endorsement can’t be overstated, said state Sen. Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston, another Biden backer.
“He is the highest profile Democratic elected official in the state of South Carolina,” Kimpson said. “He is the reason why we are having a primary this early in South Carolina. He has tremendous influence in this entire process, and not just in South Carolina (but) across the nation. We look to Jim Clyburn, not only on national issues, but local issues.
“Most importantly,” Kimpson continued, quoting the writer Rudyard Kipling, Clyburn “walks with kings but never loses the common touch.”
‘A little bit’ of pressure
In an interview with The State on Tuesday where he confirmed he had a preferred candidate in the primary race, Clyburn conceded he was receiving “a little bit” of pressure from campaigns to make his opinions known.
He underscored, however, that if he did make a public endorsement it would not be until after the nationally televised presidential debate scheduled for Feb. 25 in Charleston, co-hosted by CBS and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. Clyburn sits on the institute’s board.
Clyburn also has made clear he would “not do anything to jeopardize South Carolina’s standing” as the nation’s “First in the South” primary.
In the meantime, Clyburn insisted he was not tipping his hand to any of the campaigns, saying that he doubted his favored candidate was even aware that he or she might be on the verge of being anointed by the state party’s kingmaker.
He said that while no campaign to his knowledge has asked specifically for his endorsement, “every campaign has asked for my help,” which has translated into the congressman elevating candidates at events around the state.
“I did an event with (Massachusetts senator) Elizabeth Warren at my alma mater on student debt. I think that was a help to her. I’ve done an event with Joe Biden,” Clyburn said. “My own grandson (Walter Reed Clyburn) is with (former South Bend, Indiana, mayor) Pete Buttigieg.”
However, Clyburn did acknowledge he has discussed his views on the 2020 race “with close friends” — many of whom include House Democrats like Cleaver, Butterfield and Ryan who are actively campaigning for Biden.
They also include U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-Lousiana, a national Biden campaign co-chairman and Clyburn protege who attended Biden’s Columbia launch party Tuesday night.
“Absolutely,” Richmond, a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told The State when asked whether he has had conversations with Clyburn about Biden and Biden’s candidacy. “Clyburn and I ... eat dinner together every night. He knows where I am in this race.”
At those dinners, Richmond said conversations will often move toward Biden’s candidacy, but that “most of it has to do with what’s at stake in this election, and what the African American community would lose, what the rural community would lose, what poor communities overall would lose and that’s what we really focus on the most.”
Given how many of Clyburn’s close allies in Washington are actively working to elect Biden — and the fact that Clyburn and Biden have a long history of professional collaboration and personal friendship — there have been rumblings that Clyburn isn’t doing a good job hiding his true preference.
Between that and being quoted often as acknowledging Biden’s strength among black voters in South Carolina, Clyburn has also been accused of “tacitly endorsing” the former vice president in the primary.
Clyburn has denied this, and Cleaver backed him up, saying that during his campaigning for Biden across six South Carolina cities last weekend he heard no whispers that Clyburn might be expressing favoritism at this point.
“I’ve heard some guys out saying that he’s out secretly supporting somebody,” Cleaver said. “I was all over the state. I was all over the state. And I saw nothing that would suggest to me that Jim Clyburn is picking sides. No one.”
‘Deductive reasoning’
Some political observers say they can read between the lines.
“I think that anybody who uses deductive reasoning — it would be hard for me to imagine any other candidate getting his endorsement,” said State Sen. Kimpson. “If nothing else I would think he would probably stay out of it.
“South Carolinians develop relationships, that’s just how we do business here,” Kimpson continued. “And most of these candidates are, even though some may have been in elected government for a while, are new. So, I would have a hard time following someone with the standing of Congressman Clyburn departing from the traditional analysis in terms of lending his support to someone that is unfamiliar with the struggles of his life experiences.”
As examples of candidates who might not resonate with Clyburn, Kimpson named Sanders, Buttigieg and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
“He may or may not have a relationship with (former New York City mayor) Michael Bloomberg, I don’t know,” Kimpson continued. “The fact that Bloomberg did not campaign and is not on the ballot when he had an opportunity to do so in South Carolina, I don’t know that the congressman would endorse someone who’s not in the race in South Carolina.”
Bloomberg, who entered the race late, has been focusing his energy on Super Tuesday states and beyond.
In South Carolina, campaigns have been eyeing Clyburn for months, if quietly. Those close to the congressman say there is no use directly asking for his vote, and that message appears to have trickled down to the ground operations.
Spokespeople for Klobuchar and Warren did not return responses by press time. A spokesperson for Sanders declined to comment when asked if they were doing anything to specifically engage Clyburn for his endorsement.
Walter Clyburn Reed, who is currently working for Buttigieg, told The State he has spoken to his grandfather about Buttigieg and the candidate’s “Douglass Plan” on social justice and racial equity. The two family members plan to speak again this weekend.
Walter Clyburn Reed also said he has asked Clyburn about his plans to endorse any of the 2020 contenders and was told one would come “soon.”
A spokesperson for billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer, who in an early January Fox News poll was coming in second place at 15% in South Carolina behind Biden’s 36% first place standing, said Steyer had not asked for Clyburn’s vote.
She noted, however, that Steyer’s wife recently partnered with a nonprofit run by Jennifer Clyburn Reed — Clyburn’s daughter and Walter Clyburn Reed’s mother — “to educate young girls on financial freedom.” Jennifer Clyburn Reed has not yet endorsed.
A spokesperson for Biden, meanwhile, pointed to comments from Richmond. Richmond joked that he was doing “whatever it takes” to get Clyburn’s endorsement for Biden: “I carry his bags now,” he quipped, laughing.
But in a speech to supporters in Columbia on Tuesday night, Biden made it clear he was ready to personally fight for Clyburn’s endorsement.
“We’re going to invest in roads and bridges, broadband, water systems, school buildings, rural infrastructure,” he said to applause. “We’re gonna invest in Jim Clyburn’s 10-20-30 plan to get finally to those areas that have been left beyond the bulk of what needs to be done.”
It was a list of Clyburn’s biggest legislative priorities and his signature anti-poverty plan.
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Jim Clyburn knows who he’ll back in SC’s primary – and he’s under pressure to endorse."
