Race turning to more diverse states
2020 hopefuls plot paths forward after Iowa, NH contests Fears grow over caucus plan after Iowa’s meltdown
WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidates plotted their paths Wednesday into state primaries nowexpanding to include more voters of color, while the party’s establishment braced for a long and increasingly uncertain nomination fight ahead.
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ win in the New Hampshire primary set off a new round of strategizing among moderate party stalwarts searching for a way to knock the Vermont independent off course. Former Vice President Joe Biden made a personal appeal to donors nervous about his dismal showing in the first two contests, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar hustled to take advantage of a burst of momentum and money. Pete Buttigieg, second to Sanders in New Hampshire and slightly leading in delegates, made a pitch to pull crucial union members away from the progressive senator.
“This is far from over, and this is going to be a pretty extended process,” said Jim Margolis, who advised California Sen. Kamala Harris’ defunct campaign.
The race rolls ahead to Nevada, which holds a caucus Feb. 22, and South Carolina, whose primary is a week later. That lineup sets up an immediate fight over the voters largely left out of contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, namely Latino, black and union voters.
That put immediate pressure on leading candidates to show they could compete outside of the largely white states that launched the nominating procession.
Buttigieg, the former South Bend mayor, argued that Sanders’ Medicare for All plan would unravel some unions members’ gold-standard health care plans, pointing to the influential Culinary Union that represent workers on the Las Vegas Strip.
“If the choice is between Sen. Sanders telling them they’re going to have to give that up and me saying that we can enhance and increase choice without asking them to sacrifice what they have worked so hard for, I think that is a very good debate for us to have and I’m looking forward to having t hat debate,” Buttigieg said on NBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Klobuchar’s campaign worked to keep a tailwind from Tuesday’s strong third-place finish. A campaign that once was down to boasting of being in the “top five” vacuumed up donations — more than $6 million in recent days — and scrambled to build out the field operations and advertising needed to put the cash to use. Klobuchar’s campaign launched two new television and digital ads in Nevada on Wednesday. She was headed to Las Vegas after a fundraiser in New York.
The Minnesota senator appeared to benefit from Biden’s slide, scooping up new support from older and moderate voters.
Biden’s campaign on Wednesday tried to reassure donors it could stop the bleeding with a retooled media strategy. On a conference call with donors, Biden and advisers said he would be increasing his visibility with more media interviews and would increase spending on radio ads, according to a participant on the call.
His campaign has raised $4 million since his lackluster performance during the Iowa caucuses, the campaign told the group, describing the disappointing finishes there and in New Hampshire as a gut check for a candidate once viewed as the front-runner. They offered assurances that Biden’s base of support with black voters was still solid, and said it remained the key to reviving his bid once they start voting in large numbers in Nevada’s Feb. 22 caucus and South Carolina’s primary.
On a call with reporters, Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Biden backer, argued no other candidate has Biden’s advantage in those states.
“You cannot come through diverse states without having diverse support,” he said.
If the result from the first two states to vote — Iowa and New Hampshire — demonstrated anything, it’s that no candidate has a clear hold on the coalition needed to win the nomination.
Both Buttigieg and Klobuchar, national newcomers from the Midwest, have demonstrated little backing from minority voters. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has also struggled to expand her support in the early contests or pick up momentum that might win over black votes in South Car
LAS VEGAS — Concerns have been growing that next week’s Nevada caucuses could offer a repeat of the chaos that ensnared the Iowa vote, with Nevada facing many of the same organizational and technical challenges that crippled Iowa’s process.
Volunteers who will be leading the Feb. 22 caucuses said key information had yet to be shared. There has been no hands-on training with iPads being deployed to caucus sites on Election Day nor opportunities to try out a new “tool” that will be loaded onto the iPads and used during the caucus process. olina, where African American voters make up more than half the Democratic electorate.
The race only gets more competitive and more expensive for Super Tuesday.
Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg has been campaigning in those delegate-rich states for weeks, opting to skip the early
Adding to the mix is that Nevada also plans to offer early voting, a complicated step that Iowa did not attempt. That has prompted some confusion about how early voters would be included in the multistage caucus process.
“This sounds just dangerous, like people are still improvising and making up the rules as they go,” said Doug Jones, a University of Iowa computer scientist and expert on voting technology. “How do they expect to get training done for all the people doing these caucuses?”
Nevada, the third state to cast votes on the Democratic presidential field, is seen as the first test of a candidate’s strength before a diverse population and strong labor unions. Nevada scramble. His effort, and his millions in cash, appear to be making inroads with voters, including the black voters Biden is banking on.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg drew an overflow crowd to a speech at an African American museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee, one of the Super Tuesday states. None of his major
Republicans are not holding caucuses this year.
Molly Forgey, a spokeswoman for the Nevada State Democratic Party, declined to respond to questions about how the reporting process will work and the security measures in place.
“We’ll train our volunteers as soon as the process is rolled out,” Forgey said.
She added: “I think our confidence level is the same — still high.”
As in Iowa, Nevada’s caucuses are run by the state party and not state and local election officials, who will administer the November election and statewide primaries.
In training sessions in recent days, Nevada Democrats told precinct leaders they will be using an iPad they will receive the day of competitors has yet announced stops there.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick ended his 2020 campaign Wednesday after his late bid failed to catch fire or resonate with voters. He was the last remaining African American candidate in a Democratic presidential field once defined by its the caucuses.
Seth Morrison, a site leader who will oversee multiple precincts at a caucus site in the metro Las Vegas area, said he was told he would be trained on the iPads when he picks them up a few days before the caucuses and would be responsible for showing precinct leaders how to use them.
Nevada Democrats were initially working with the same app developer used in Iowa but scrapped those plans after the company’s app failed there. Instead, loaded on the iPads will be what’s been referred to in training materials as a “Caucus Tool” used to enter results. Party officials emphasized that it was not an app, but they have yet to explain how it’s different. diversity.
Meanwhile, Troy Price, chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, announced his resignation Wednesday after a disastrous caucus process beset by technical glitches led to a dayslong delay in reporting the results, inconsistencies in the numbers and no clear winner.