Impact2020 Briefing: March 3, 2020
Welcome to your Impact2020 briefing for Tuesday, March 3. Of note today: Former rivals embrace Joe Biden at a campaign stop in Dallas as establishment Democrats rush to halt Bernie Sanders’ momentum, Michael Bloomberg is banking on a contested convention, and Donald Trump predicts victory in North Carolina.
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On the Ground
Group hug
One-time Democratic rivals rushed to Texas Monday night to throw their support behind Joe Biden, just hours before primary polls opened there and in 13 other Super Tuesday states. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Anna M. Tinsley reports that Pete Buttigieg appeared with Biden before a Dallas rally to announce his endorsement after dropping out of the race on Sunday.
At the rally, Amy Klobuchar, who ended her campaign earlier in the day, also announced her endorsement, saying Biden “had dignity and heart.” And another former candidate, Beto O’Rourke, told the crowd, “I will be casting my ballot for Joe Biden,” before accompanying the former vice president to a nearby Whataburger for a post-rally meal.
Biden is still almost certain to trail Bernie Sanders in the delegate race once all Super Tuesday’s votes are counted. But as McClatchy Political Correspondent David Catanese writes, “the size of his delegate deficit will be the most crucial number to determine whether he can eventually overtake Sanders as the calendar extends to more favorable electoral turf later in March and into April.”
The only way
Michael Bloomberg is admitting that his path to winning the Democratic presidential nomination will require something that hasn’t happened since 1968: a contested convention. During a campaign stop in Miami’s Little Havana on Tuesday, the former New York City mayor argued the Democratic Party should not award the nomination to the candidate who amasses the most delegates if they are short of a majority and pointed out that “a contested convention is a democratic process.” The Miami Herald’s Bianca Padró Ocasio and Alex Daugherty have more here.
“A little trolling”
Nearly 10,000 people attended President Donald Trump’s rally in Charlotte, N.C. Monday night, where he mocked potential Democratic opponents Biden and Bloomberg and promised to “win the great state of North Carolina by a landslide,” in November, Jim Morrill and Hannah Smoot report for the Charlotte Observer.
Trump faces only nominal opposition in his bid for the GOP nomination, but he said he liked to campaign in states “the night before one of their primaries … We like to do a little trolling.”
Trail Mix
Super Tuesday and beyond
“To all of Amy and Pete’s supporters the door is open. Come on in,” Sanders said at a rally in St. Paul, Minn. Monday night, the St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Christopher Magan reports.
The Deseret News’ Lisa Riley Roche reports that Sanders drew some of his biggest cheers at a Salt Lake City rally Monday when he “pledged to legalize marijuana use nationwide, and expunge the records of those prosecuted for its use.”
Elizabeth Warren’s campaign is “laboring to cut a path through a quickly shifting field even as they face the possibility that she will not come in first anywhere in the first month of voting,” Jess Bidgood writes for the Boston Globe.
Warren is campaigning in Michigan Tuesday evening as she seeks to “pick up more support as opponents bow out of the primary race,” MLive’s Malachi Barrett reports.
“On-the-fence voters” in South Florida told the Miami Herald’s Padró Ocasio that Biden’s big win in South Carolina last week was enough to convince them to cast an early vote for him.
With 51 pledged delegates, Puerto Rico’s voters have more weight than about half of the states in the country. And after moving its primary from June 7 to March 29, the island territory is likely to be a factor in the Democratic race this year, the Miami Herald’s Padró Ocasio, Jim Wyss and David Smiley report.
Number of The Day
1992
That’s the last year Minnesota held a primary. The state, one of 14 voting today, has held caucuses in the last six elections before returning to the primary system in 2020, the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Stephen Montemayor reports.
For Planning Purposes
March 3
Alabama, American Samoa, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia and Democrats Abroad hold their primary elections.
Sanders holds a primary night rally in Essex Junction, Vermont.
Biden holds a campaign event in Los Angeles, Calif.
Warren holds a campaign event in Detroit, Mich.
Bloomberg holds a rally in Palm Beach, Fla.
Tulsi Gabbard holds a town hall in Detroit.
Somebody Hire That Chihuahua
Diesel the chihuahua managed to get front-row access to Bloomberg during a media scrum on the streets of Little Havana. Now if he could just take notes ...
Even More
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