Suburbanites are voting and that’s good news for Joe Biden

BURNSVILLE, MINN. » Nearly two years after suburbanites helped drive a Democratic surge, there are clear signs these voters are engaged and primed to vote Democratic again.

Turnout in the Democratic presidential primary has been strong across suburban counties, from northern Virginia to Southern California, that fueled the 2018 wave. In several key counties, turnout has exceeded that of four years ago. In some cases, it has bested the party’s recent high water marks reached during the 2008 primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

That has been particularly good news now for Joe Biden. The former vice president, who’s running as a moderate, consensus candidate, soared to the top of the Democratic field this past week, showing strength in places such as Fairfax County in Virginia, and Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. Many suburban Democrats said they are motivated by their desire to oust Trump and a fear that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Biden’s chief primary rival, is a riskier bet.

“My main goal is to not have Trump get reelected,” Gail Hayes, a 67-year-old retired child care provider, said outside a coffee shop in Burnsville, Minnesota, a Twin Cities suburb.

Hayes noted that she’s ideologically more aligned with progressives such as Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator who dropped out of the race Thursday. But Hayes described herself as pragmatic and said she voted for Biden because she thinks he can win.

“I wanted to pick someone more moderate,” she said. “I really didn’t decide until a couple hours before I voted.”

The Democratic turnout overall has risen, with Iowa, North Carolina and Texas topping 2016 levels, but not the 2008 spike. Virginia was an exception, jumping from 986,000 votes in 2008 to 1.3 million.

Much of that increase is coming in American suburbs that will be pivotal to the November general election.

Consider Burnsville, part of once-reliably Republican Dakota County. The sprawling community has grown more racially diverse and more Democratic in recent years. The strip mall where Hayes grabbed a coffee also housed a halal grocer linked with an African restaurant and a Latin grocer linked with a taco shop.

STEVE KARNOWSKI - THE AP Gail Hayes, 67, a retired child care provider from Burnsville, Minn., discusses the state of the political campaign on Wednesday, March 4, 2020, in Burnsville, a Minneapolis suburb in Dakota County, a once traditionally Republican area that has become swing territory in recent elections.