Tag: 2020 election

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Biden Surges To 16-Point Lead In National Poll

It looks like ‘Joe-Mentum’ is real as former Vice President Joe Biden has surged to a 16-point lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) according to the latest Morning Consult poll. Among those polled, 54 percent indicated support for Biden and 38 percent said they’d vote for Sanders. Breaking the numbers down by age, 70 percent of voters ages 45 and older are supporting Biden while 57 percent of voters under 45 support Sanders. Additionally, 51 percent say the former vice president has the best chance to beat Donald Trump in the general election. The survey of 1,390 Democratic primary voters was conducted after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) exited the race on Thursday. The poll has a 3-point margin of error.

(graphic via Morning Consult)

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Sanders “Disgusted” And “Aghast” By Vitriol Hurled By His Supporters

During an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was asked about some of the attacks lobbed at his presidential primary opponent Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during the Democratic primary. Referencing the tweeting of images of snakes and more, Maddow asked Sanders if he felt that might hurt his campaign’s prospects. Sanders responded saying he was “actually disgusted” and “aghast” by online vitriol directed at Warren. “We condemn that,” Sanders said directly and without equivocation. “We want our supporters to be [talking] about the issues.”

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Elizabeth Warren Ends Bid For Presidential Nomination

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (image via campaign)
From the New York Times:

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts dropped out of the presidential race on Thursday, ending a run defined by an avalanche of policy plans that aimed to pull the Democratic Party to the left and appealed to enough voters to make her briefly a front-runner last fall.

Though her vision excited progressives, it did not generate enough excitement among the party’s working-class and diverse base, and her support had eroded by Super Tuesday. In her final weeks as a candidate she effectively drove former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, a centrist billionaire, out of the race with debate performances that flashed her evident skills and political potential.

Addressing supporters and the press in front of her house in Cambridge, Ms. Warren said that, from the start, she had been told there were only two true lanes in the 2020 contest: a liberal one dominated by Mr. Sanders, 78, and a moderate one led by Mr. Biden, 77.

“I thought that wasn’t right,” Ms. Warren said, “But evidently I was wrong.”

When asked if she would be making an endorsement in the Democratic race, she demurred. “Not today, not today. I need some space around this, and want to take a little time to think a little more.”

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Super Tuesday Round-Up: Biden’s Big Night

L-R Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders
It was quite the night for former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign roared through Super Tuesday. Biden handily won throughout the South (Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia), scored a big come-from-behind win in Texas, and scored surprise victories in Minnesota and Massachusetts. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) claimed victory in his home state of Vermont, as well as Utah, Colorado and, most probably the delegate-rich state of California. At this time, Maine and California haven’t been officially called yet although the NY Times estimates Biden to pick up Maine and Sanders to come out on top in California. As I reported earlier, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg spent nearly half a billion dollars in ads across the Super Tuesday primaries and only won in American Samoa. He dropped out of the race this morning and endorsed Biden. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), briefly the front-runner last fall, didn’t win a single state.
(graphic via NY Times)
According to an NBC News exit poll, LGBTQ voters “made up a disproportionately high 9 percent of the electorate in the Super Tuesday contests.” The survey also showed that 42 percent of those LGBTQ voters cast their ballot for Sanders, and 22 percent supported Warren. Biden garnered 19 percent of the LGBTQ vote, and Bloomberg picked up 6 percent. Even though former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the race on Sunday night, he still received 6 percent of the queer vote due to early voting in several states. Scrolling through Twitter last night, the Sanders supporters were clearly angry at the results characterizing the night as being ‘taken away’ from their guy. Axios‘ Alexi McCammond reported hearing “sneers and anger about ‘the establishment'” at the Sanders rally in Vermont. Next up are the contests in Michigan, Washington State, Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho, and North Dakota on March 10. This is the current delegate count as of this morning according to the New York Times. This will change over the next few days as several states don’t have all their ballots in. For instance, in California mail-in ballots only had to be postmarked by March 3. So, they won’t be counted for a couple of days.
(via NY Times)

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Bloomberg Drops Out After Disastrous Super Tuesday

Mike Bloomberg (screen capture)
From Axios:

Michael Bloomberg, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars to self-fund his 2020 presidential run, announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign after a poor performance on Super Tuesday and will endorse Joe Biden.

What he’s saying: “I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday’s vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden,” Bloomberg said in a statement.

“I’ve known Joe for a very long time. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country – including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs.”

American Samoa was Bloomberg’s only win of the night.

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Report: Pete Buttigieg To Endorse Joe Biden For President

L-R Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg
Reuters is reporting that former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg plans to endorse former Vice President Joe Biden today for president. This comes a day after Buttigieg ended his historic campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sen. Amy Klobuchar also announced she is ending her campaign as well and is reportedly traveling to Texas to campaign with and endorse Biden tonight.

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Begala: Trump Will Dump Pence For Nikki Haley

Paul Begala (image via CNN)
Political strategist Paul Begala’s predicts Donald Trump will dump Vice President Mike Pence for the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. Speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) 2020 policy conference on Monday, Begala told the crowd “it’s a certainty” that Trump will dump Pence. “On Thursday, July 16, that’s the date the Democrat gives his or her acceptance address,” said Begala. “On that day, to interrupt that narrative, Donald Trump will call a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. He’s gonna dump Mike Pence and put Nikki Haley on the ticket to try to get those suburban moms. You watch. Guaranteed.”

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Amy Klobuchar Ends Her Campaign For Democratic Nomination

ABC News reports that Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is suspending her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and will endorse former Vice President Joe Biden.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, has suspended her campaign Monday following an underdog third place finish in the New Hampshire primary and two sixth place finishes in Nevada and South Carolina — two states with substantially more diverse electorates.

The Klobuchar campaign confirmed to ABC News that the senator is flying to Dallas to join former Vice President Joe Biden at his rally Monday night where she will suspend her campaign and endorse him.

Hours before news of her dismal finish in South Carolina, Klobuchar told reporters following a Super Tuesday rally in Richmond, Virginia, that her campaign had been approaching the race “state by state” because of lack of funding.

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Joe Biden Wins South Carolina Democratic Primary

Within seconds of the polls closing, several networks immediately announced former Vice President Joe Biden as the winner of the South Carolina Democratic primary. Those announcements were based on exit polls, so you know they had to lean heavily in Biden’s favor. Several important demographics went Biden’s way including 60 percent of Black voters, 57 percent of voters 65 or older, 52 percent of moderates and 48 percent who chose on the basis of electability. My questions now are: can Biden win by the 86k votes needed to take the popular vote lead? And can he win by the 30 delegates needed to take the overall delegate lead? Both are possible. I’ll update once the vote count is announced. From here, Biden has to hope to be viable (get at least 15%) in California so Sen. Bernie Sanders doesn’t gain a huge numbers advantage.  

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Fox Poll: All 6 Democrats Beat Trump In Head-To-Head Matchups

A new poll by Fox News got Donald Trump uber-angry as the results showed all six Democratic candidates beating him in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups. Biden and Bloomberg both beat the Donald by 8 points. Sanders trumped Trump by 7 points. The other three candidates were ahead of Trump but within the margin of error for the poll: Warren (+3 points), Buttigieg (+3) and Klobuchar (+1). In each scenario, however, there are enough undecided/third-party voters to move the race either way. Additionally, 56% of respondents believe Trump will be elected versus 34% who did not. Ten percent were unsure.