Impact2020 Briefing: March 5, 2020
Welcome to your Impact2020 briefing for Thursday, March 5. Of note today: Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders dig in for a delegate duel, primary turnout in Texas is making Republicans nervous, and North Carolina Democrats hope Bloomberg’s money doesn’t dry up.
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On the Ground
Delegate hopscotch
Joe Biden’s supporters are predicting a big win in Missouri, one of six states voting on March 10, despite virtually no presence in the state until this week. The former vice president’s dramatic swing in fortune after winning 10 states on Super Tuesday has earned him a slew of new endorsements, Bryan Lowry, Kelsey Landis and Jason Hancock report for the Kansas City Star. And his campaign has planned a string of events over the next few days that will culminate with Saturday stops in St. Louis and Kansas City.
Biden will have a tougher time next Tuesday in Washington, which “is classic Bernie Sanders territory,” David Lightman reports for The Olympian. Expectations are high for the Vermont senator there, given the state’s liberal bent and large population of young voters. And as Lightman notes, Biden has yet to win a state west of Texas.
Republicans’ worst nightmare
Democratic turnout surged in Texas’ Super Tuesday primary, “fueling Republican fears that their greatest electoral stronghold is no longer absolutely safe,” McClatchy White House Correspondent Michael Wilner and Political Correspondent Alex Roarty report. More than 1.85 million voters participated in the primary Biden won. That represented a greater than 30 percent increase from the Democratic contest four years earlier.
Keeping troops on the ground
North Carolina Democrats are hopeful that Michael Bloomberg will maintain his investments — and the small army of campaign staff he built up — in the battleground state, even though he’s dropped out of the White House race. Rep. G.K. Butterfield told the Charlotte Observer’s Jim Morrill, “I am confident that he’ll invest not only in the presidential race but in our effort to make the General Assembly Democratic.”
Trail Mix
March Madness
The Boston Globe’s Jess Bidgood reports that Elizabeth Warren is dropping out of the presidential race, “in the wake of a poor performance in Super Tuesday contests that Warren once hoped would lift her campaign.”
Former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius announced her support of Biden on Thursday, Bryan Lowry scoops for the Kansas City Star.
Support in suburban communities was key to Biden’s surprise Super Tuesday victory in Minnesota, Jessie Van Berkle reports for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Biden is “the candidate to beat in Ohio,” Cleveland.com’s Seth Richardson writes, and “the Sanders campaign realizes that: they’re going up with TV ads in Ohio attacking Biden for wanting to freeze federal spending, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.”
Sanders “surged in western states in the 2016 Democratic race,” and it seems that support has grown even stronger in 2020, Sofia Jeremias writes for the Deseret News.
Swing state watch
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Andrew Seidman writes that President Donald Trump’s appearance in Biden’s hometown of Scranton at a Fox News town hall Thursday night “may underscore an uncomfortable truth for his would-be rivals: It’s not always easy being a Democrat in Northeastern Pennsylvania these days.”
A historically black university was at “the epicenter of the challenges and complications” that faced Texas primary voters on Super Tuesday, particularly voters in predominantly black communities, Alex Ura reports for the Texas Tribune.
More than 1 million people voted in Colorado’s Democratic primary, “an eightfold increase from four years ago, when about 124,000 Democrats turned out to” the state’s caucuses, the Denver Post’s Jon Murray reports.
Battle for Congress
“For only the third time in history, both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats are up for election in the same year, drawing unusually strong attention from national Democratic groups who see an opportunity this November in a state that has voted Republican for nearly two decades,” McClatchy White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers writes.
Just hours after North Carolina’s Senate primaries wrapped up, the general election race started getting heated, with Republican Sen. Thom Tillis and Democrats supporting Cal Cunningham swapping attack ads, Brian Murphy reports for The Raleigh News & Observer.
Former Air Force pilot MJ Hegar will face longtime state Sen. Royce West in the Texas Democratic Senate primary runoff election on May 26, Tessa Weinberg reports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Number of The Day
6
The number of hours some people waited in line to vote in Houston, Texas on Super Tuesday.
For Planning Purposes
March 5
Trump participates in a Fox News town hall in Scranton, Pa.
Sanders holds a rally in Phoenix.
March 6
Sanders delivers a speech with Mayor Chokwe Lumumba in Jackson, Miss.
Biden’s General Election Strategy?
Given Biden’s Super Tuesday victory in so many states he never visited, James Corden suggests he “lay low in South America for the next eight months.” His “number one constituency is people who don’t want to see or hear from Joe Biden!”
Even More
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This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 2:40 PM.