It’s now a two-horse race: Joe vs. Bernie
Joe Biden’s drubbing of Bernie Sanders and the rest of the Democratic field in South Carolina sets up a two-person race heading into Super Tuesday, and Biden can now argue he’s the only moderate contender left who can stop Bernie.
Biden’s strength among African Americans — he won six out of 10 black voters in the Palmetto State — propelled him to his firstever primary victory in a long career that includes three runs at the White House. His win was so big that he could actually take a delegate lead.
The former vice president even beat Bernie among self-described liberal voters in South Carolina, an impressive feat.
Biden still faces huge challenges heading into Tuesday’s primaries. He doesn’t have enough money to run a major ad campaign in big states like California.
His South Carolina win could trigger a fundraising boom but it’s too late to put ads on the air now. He has to hope that somehow the South Carolina results give him clear momentum in states like Virginia, Alabama and others with large black voting populations.
Pete Buttigieg, Tom Steyer and Amy Klobuchar should drop out now if they really believe that Sanders won’t be able to beat President Trump.
If they did drop out, it would give Biden a clearer path to the nomination and allow the former vice president to take out the last remaining moderate, Mike Bloomberg, on Super Tuesday.
Bloomberg’s only hope for winning was that Biden would self-destruct in the early contests, and that hasn’t happened. Even though he wasn’t on the ballot, a whopping twothirds of South Carolina voters had an unfavorable opinion of the former New York City mayor, exit polls showed.
His strategy of not contesting the early states, especially South Carolina, will prove to be a bust. He’s not leading anywhere in the polls in Super Tuesday states and though he may win some delegates, it won’t be enough to stay in the race.
Then there’s Elizabeth Warren, who made a dismal showing in South Carolina — the fourth straight defeat for her sagging campaign.
A Super Tuesday shutout — including in her home state of Massachusetts — would finally kill off Warren’s campaign and could wound her image and clout in the Democratic Party.
If Sanders gives her a Bay State beating on Tuesday, Warren would have no rationale for a campaign since she is fighting for the same group of liberal voters that Sanders is targeting.
Her best bet would be to endorse Sanders and give him an uncontested shot at the progressive vote, increasing his chances of beating a rejuvenated Biden or Bloomberg.
That way Warren could still have a role in the race, even as just a surrogate and potential running mate for Sanders.
It’s not much but it may be the only way to save face for Warren, who now trails Sanders in Massachusetts despite getting high-profile endorsements of major Democrats like Rep. Joe Kennedy III, Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Attorney General Maura Healey.
Warren was hoping that Pressley’s support and her many visits to South Carolina would give her a share of black voters there, but that never materialized. She should focus back on Massachusetts and her constituents there.