For Joe Biden, Two Bad Losses and a Precarious Path Forward

[brooklynite]

New York Times

Both Mr. Buttigieg and Ms. Klobuchar have so far shown little ability to appeal to voters of color, and Mr. Biden, who has polled strongly with African-American voters, is counting on later-voting, more diverse states to revitalize his campaign. But he will need resources to compete aggressively in Nevada, South Carolina and especially in the 15 states and territories that vote early next month, on Super Tuesday, including the large and expensive states of Texas and California.

His two straight losses will complicate his fund-raising efforts, Democratic operatives warn, at a moment when some Biden donors have also been quietly considering former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York.

“How do you raise the money? How do you convince donors small and large that they should continue to invest in you?” said Leah Daughtry, a veteran party strategist who ran the 2008 and 2016 Democratic National Conventions, sketching out the challenges for the Biden camp as well as for other struggling candidates including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

“You’ve got to blow it out of the water in Nevada and South Carolina to convince small and large donors you continue to be worth the investment,” she added. “You need that money because Super Tuesday is three days after South Carolina. You don’t have a lot of time to pivot.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Biden did not even stay in New Hampshire for a previously planned primary night event. Instead, he flew to South Carolina, which has a predominantly black electorate in Democratic primaries and will be the first state to reflect the preferences of the voters who have most buoyed his candidacy.

[customerserviceguy]

1. I'm surprised by one thing

I moved to SC in 2017, and I haven't seen a lot of election paraphernalia since I've been here, except for very local races (sheriff, etc.) I live in WA state until 2007, and every election, even primaries, had yard signs, banners, bumper stickers, etc. for months before the voting. I moved to NY in 2007, and I was surprised at how muted politics was, but the signs came out the weekend before the election.

As a lifelong student of politics, I was enthused to be able to see what things would be like in an early primary state, and if you looked around (I just went out for a bit this morning) you'd be hard pressed to know that there was a primary election coming in less than two weeks. Other than Steyer, ads for presidential candidates have only started very recently.

Maybe it's just different in Washington state.