Impact2020 Briefing: Feb. 28, 2020
Welcome to your Impact2020 briefing for Friday, Feb. 28. Of note today: South Carolina voters say Rep. Jim Clyburn’s endorsement of Joe Biden makes a big difference, California is poised to be the ultimate test of Michael Bloomberg’s big-spending campaign strategy and Jewish voters ponder the prospects of making history.
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On the Ground
“It’s everything”
The State’s Maayan Schecter spoke with South Carolina voters about the impact of Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn’s late-breaking endorsement of Joe Biden ahead of Saturday’s primary vote. “It’s everything,” Columbia barbershop owner Chris Toliver told Schecter. “You’re talking about the most influential brown person in the state of South Carolina.”
Biden’s nod from Clyburn, Schechter notes, could help stem any rising momentum for Tom Steyer. The billionaire California philanthropist has been making gains with African-American voters in South Carolina, where he has invested the brunt of his time and campaign spending. As I report for The State, Steyer has also donated more than $100,000 to charities and nonprofit groups in South Carolina, predominantly in black communities.
It’s part of more than half a million dollars in donations he’s made through his campaign to organizations in critical primary states, something Steyer’s campaign explains is part and parcel of his grassroots approach to politics.
Track all the presidential campaign stops in South Carolina ahead of Saturday’s primary with The State’s 2020 candidate tracker.
Meanwhile, in California
California is one of 14 states voting on Tuesday, and with a whopping 415 pledged delegates up for grabs, it could make or break several presidential campaigns. As McClatchy Political Correspondent David Catanese reports from Los Angeles, California “will serve as the ultimate test case for how far Michael Bloomberg’s money can carry him” in the race. The state also could deliver Bernie Sanders “the insurmountable delegate lead his opponents are so worried about — even if it takes days or weeks to realize due to a delayed count of mail-in ballots.”
The Sacramento Bee’s Bryan Anderson has more on the state of play in the primary — and what to watch for on election night — on the latest episode of his California Nation podcast.
Mixed feelings
Sanders and Bloomberg are vying to make history as the first Jewish nominee of a major political party for president. But as McClatchy White House Correspondent Michael Wilner writes, “Jewish leaders who might otherwise have celebrated the milestone are expressing concern it could aggravate an unprecedented spike in antisemitism nationwide.”
Go Beyond the Bubble
Download the latest episode of McClatchy’s Beyond the Bubble podcast, taped in South Carolina: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
Trail Mix
February focus
The State’s Joseph Bustos reports that Sanders has begun attacking Biden by name, saying at a rally in Spartanburg, S.C., he doesn’t believe that the former vice president can beat President Donald Trump.
Pete Buttigieg sought to convince undecided voters in Rock Hill, S.C. that he is the best Democrat to “go toe-to-toe” with Trump, Cailyn Derickson reports for The Rock Hill Herald.
Super Tuesday and beyond
The Oklahoman’s Chris Casteel reports from Bloomberg’s campaign stop in Oklahoma City, where he accused Trump “of bungling the response to the coronavirus.”
Elizabeth Warren told a crowd in San Antonio, Texas that “she was the only presidential candidate who, if placed at the top of the ticket in November, could flip the U.S. Senate,” Nicole Cobler reports for the Austin American Statesman.
Unless Sanders lands a “knockout blow” in Texas, the state’s Super Tuesday primary could further muddle the Democratic race, Gromer Jeffers Jr. reports for The Dallas Morning News.
The Denver Post’s Jon Murray reports that Sanders “has opened double-digit leads over the crowded Democratic presidential field” in Colorado.
A new poll shows Sanders “is poised to win Utah’s Democratic primary election Tuesday,” Lisa Riley Roche reports for the Deseret News.
Sanders is also “on track to win a majority of the huge trove of delegates at stake” in California’s primary, according to the latest UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies poll, David Lauter writes for the Los Angeles Times.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli writes that campaigning in “out-of-the-way places” like Turlock, Calif. could be Democratic candidates’ only hope of preventing a Sanders sweep of delegates in California’s primary.
Bloomberg will watch Super Tuesday contest returns from West Palm Beach, “a sign of just how important Florida is to the former New York mayor’s campaign,” The Miami Herald’s David Smiley writes.
Smiley also has this dispatch on Sanders’ Florida campaign, which is counting on a massive volunteer network to help him counter Bloomberg’s multi-million dollar ad campaign and Biden’s support from party leaders in the state.
Swing state watch
Three weeks after its top two officials were ousted, Milwaukee’s host committee for the 2020 Democratic National Convention has hired two local officials as its new executives, Daniel Bice reports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Battle for Congress
Democratic strategists in Texas are warning that Sanders “will not have any coattails” for the party’s congressional candidates and others running down-ballot, Anna M. Tinsley reports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Number of The Day
56%
The percentage of likely Wisconsin Democratic primary voters who say they may still change their mind on whom to vote for, ahead of the state’s April 7 primary, according to a new Marquette University Law School poll.
For Planning Purposes
Feb. 28
Trump delivers remarks at a Keep America Great Rally in North Charleston, S.C.
Biden hosts a campaign event in Spartanburg, S.C.
Sanders holds a rally with musician Béla Fleck in Springfield, Mass.
Warren attends a canvass launch in Aiken, S.C.
Buttigieg holds a conversation on environmental justice in Sumter, S.C. and a town hall in Columbia, S.C.
Klobuchar holds a campaign event and fundraiser in Nashville, Tenn.
Feb. 29
South Carolina holds its “first-in-the-south” primary.
Biden hosts an event in Raleigh, N.C. and a primary night watch party in Columbia, S.C.
Steyer holds an election night party in Columbia, S.C.
Warren attends a canvass launch in Columbia, S.C., followed by town halls in Little Rock, Ark. and Houston, Texas.
Sanders holds rallies in Boston, Mass., Leesburg, Va. and Virginia Beach, Va.
Buttigieg holds town halls in Nashville, Tenn. and Raleigh, N.C.
Klobuchar holds campaign events in Knoxville, Tenn., Richmond, Va. and Norfolk, Va.
Bloomberg and Klobuchar speak at the North Carolina Democratic Party’s Blue NC dinner in Charlotte.
Tulsi Gabbard holds a town hall in San Francisco, Calif.
March 1
Sanders holds rallies in San Jose and Los Angeles, Calif.
Biden, Warren, Steyer, Klobuchar, Buttigieg and Bloomberg are expected to attend events surrounding the 55th Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee to mark Bloody Sunday in Selma, Ala.
Biden campaigns in Norfolk, Va.
Buttigieg holds a rally in Dallas, Texas.
Klobuchar holds a rally in St. Louis Park, Minn.
Gabbard holds a town hall in Los Angeles, Calif.
“It’s Very Rich, You’re Going to Want to Tax it”
Stephen Colbert introduces Warren to South Carolina cuisine.
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 2:53 PM.