Buttigieg emerges as new threat to Biden after debate

[bluewater]

Joe Biden faces a new threat from South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is fresh off an eye-opening debate performance and positioning himself to be a top contender for the support of centrist Democrats if the former vice president falters.

Buttigieg has emerged as a fundraising powerhouse and will enter the final stretch before the Iowa caucuses in February flush with cash. Buttigieg has more than $23 million in the bank, compared to only $9 million for Biden, a shockingly low number for a front-runner.

The Buttigieg campaign says it raised $1 million from tens of thousands of donors in the hours after Tuesday's debate concluded.
Recent polls of Iowa show Buttigieg on the rise. The mayor has picked up 4.5 points in the past month in the RealClearPolitics average, and a Firehouse-Optimus survey released this week found him in third place at 17 percent in the Hawkeye State, within striking distance of both Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), at 25 percent, and Biden, at 22 percent.

And Buttigieg has stepped out as a fighter for moderate Democrats who feel marginalized by the left, putting him in direct conflict with Biden in the battle for centrist primary voters.

Buttigieg has aggressively gone after Warren over her "Medicare for All" proposal, accusing her of being evasive about how she'd pay for it. And he's clashed with former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) over his mandatory gun buyback plan, which Buttigieg describes as an unrealistic and divisive proposal at a time when Congress might otherwise be able to achieve incremental gun safety reforms.

The sum total has some Democrats envisioning something that seemed unlikely only a few weeks ago - a race for the nomination that comes down to Warren or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on the left, with an opening for Buttigieg to supplant Biden as the party's centrist standard-bearer.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/buttigieg-emerges-as-new-threat-to-biden-after-debate/ar-AAIVbAb

[George II]

1. Biden has picked up 3.7 points in just the last week.

[HeartlandProgressive]

6. Only according to one tracker. Is that cherry picking?

Another respected polling aggregate tracker paints a different picture

Who is ahead in the Democratic primary race?

Warren 28%, Biden 25%, Sanders 15%, Buttigieg 6%, Harris 5%

https://projects.economist.com/democratic-primaries-2020/

Which tracker is correct? RCP Polls or The Economist's?

time will tell

[emulatorloo]

18. When the GOP demonized the word 'Liberal', many liberals rebranded themselves as Prorgressives

EOM

[ritapria]

13. You are right

Pete and Elizabeth are drawing from the same group of voters : White, affluent, college- educated voters.. Pete is a threat to Warren - not Joe ...Joe and Bernie draw from the same group of voters : Working class voters , non- college educated voters and people of color.. .

[Celerity]

21. Age of support is a massive difference for Biden and Sanders, Biden dominates with the older

voters, and Sanders is strongest with the youngest groups.

[crazytown]

7. Pete's campaign will die in the South.

He would have to win over Black Evangelical Churches.

[George II]

8. Sad, but true. His sexual orientation shouldn't be considered, but it will be a big factor.

[bluewater]

10. Are you suggesting that a large % of African American Democratic voters are homophobic?

In reply to a poster who said "Pete's campaign will die in the South. He would have to win over Black Evangelical Churches.",
you wrote:

"Sad, but true. His sexual orientation shouldn't be considered, but it will be a big factor."

Please clarify your last post.

[George II]

12. No, but a large % of WHITE voters in the South are.

[bluewater]

14. So, are you are saying a large % of white Southern Democratic voters are homophobes?

Previously in this thread:

In reply to a poster who said "Pete's campaign will die in the South. He would have to win over Black Evangelical Churches.",
you wrote:

"Sad, but true. His sexual orientation shouldn't be considered, but it will be a big factor."

Now you wrote:

No, but a large % of WHITE voters in the South are.

Are you now purporting that a large % of Southern white Democrats are homophobes?

Please clarify your latest post. Thank you.

[George II]

15. You see what I said. Draw your own conclusions (you will anyway)

[bluewater]

16. You said: "His sexual orientation shouldn't be considered, but it will be a big factor."

This discussion was about Buttigieg primary campaign dying in the south. So, the question raised was which group of Southern Democratic voters did you have in mind when you stated:

His sexual orientation shouldn't be considered, but it will be a big factor.

You have a right not to answer a direct question like this, but why bring up Pete's sexual orientation at all then?

Thanks for the discussion.

[cwydro]

23. Yep.

Rather illuminating.

[beastie boy]

9. Hate to state the obvious, but everyone who is doing better at fundraising at any given moment is an

emerging threat to anyone else who is doing worse at any given moment.

Stay tuned for lots more emerging threats to more candidates being reported ad nauseum until the election. Only the names will change.

[DeterDeter]

11. Nate Silver

Last edited Fri Oct 18, 2019, 01:47 PM - Edit history (1)

has been posting about how Buttigieg draws from the same demographic that is Elizabeth Warren's base (college-educated whites) in Iowa, so she could be more of a threat to Warren than Biden despite their policy differences. I do think that Pete has a potential to do well in Iowa. Anecdotally, I know that some of the college aged folks around my office (I'm in my 30s) who said that they voted for Bernie in the 2016 election primaries were really into Mayor Pete as of last spring-I'm not sure who they favor now.

[emulatorloo]

20. Yeah that makes more since to me than the articles analysis. I think Pete will do well in Iowa

with college educated caucus goers.

[LeftTurn3623]

19. I really hope Biden supporters start to move to Buttigieg

I really think he could be the best answer at this time in history

I mean if you are a Biden supporter did you ever think about 4 years from now? Biden is going to be too old to run for reelection if hhe isnt already. We need a new voice in the party

[PhoenixDem]

22. Some of the OPs make me laugh hysterically

Mayor Pete is decimating Sen. Warren on the unworkability and astronomical price tag of MFA which she has evaded addressing. Not a good look to be evasive about people's pocketbooks.