San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
SANDERS GETS SOLID WIN IN NEV. DEMOCRATIC CAUCUSES
Biden places second as hopefuls seek momentum for S.C., Super Tuesday
Bernie Sanders won a commanding victory in the Nevada presidential caucuses Saturday, marshaling a broad multi-ethnic coalition to solidify his stance atop the still-large Democratic field.
While Sanders’ victory was no surprise — Vermont’s senator was the heavy favorite to prevail in the caucuses — his huge margin and depth of support delivered a strong jolt of momentum after two lessthan-overwhelming performances.
Former Vice President Joe Biden was running a distant second, setting up a high-stakes competition Saturday in South Carolina, where the two will compete for black voters poised to usher the winner into a crucial blizzard of balloting on March 3, Super Tuesday.
Sanders — his wife, Jane, at his side — greeted supporters in San Antonio, Texas, one of the Super Tuesday states, as they cheered wildly and waved blue and white “Bernie” signs. Ignoring his Democratic rivals, he took aim at President Donald Trump.
“The American people are sick and tired of a government which is based on greed, corruption and lies,” Sanders hollered. “They want an administration which is based on the principles of justice. Economic justice, social justice, racial justice and environmental justice.”
Though they trailed far behind, Sanders’ opponents showed no signs they planned to quit the race or cede the nomination.
With only a tiny fraction of ballots counted, Biden took the stage in Las Vegas to declare victory, of a sort, before a crowd of supporters.
“I know we don’t have the final results yet, but I feel really good,” an exuberant Biden said. “The press is ready to declare people dead quickly. But we’re alive, and we’re coming back and we’re going to win.”
Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttiegeg, who tied Sanders in the Iowa caucuses and finished a close second in the New Hampshire primary, used his remarks to lace into the Democratic front-runner.
“Before we rush to nominate Sen. Sanders in our one shot to take on this president, let us take a sober look at what is at stake for our party, for our values, and for those with the most to lose,” said Buttiegieg, who was battling Massachusetts
Sen. Elizabeth Warren for third place.
Sanders “believes in an inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats,” Buttigieg asserted, “not to mention most Americans.”
He urged voters to “take a sober look at the consequences” of making Sanders the party’s nominee. Buttigieg said Sanders has a “vision of capitalism as the root of all evil.” And he added that Sanders’ political vision would “reorder the economy in ways most Democrats — let alone most Americans — don’t support.”
Buttigieg called for a broad Democratic coalition. But he said Sanders’ army of online supporters — often referred to as “Bernie Bros” — threaten, intimidate and harass the very same people needed to beat Trump.
Sanders had been the strong favorite to win the caucuses, given his ardent following among younger voters and Latinos as well as residual support from his strong 2016 White House bid.
But his victory went much further than that.
The 78-year-old senator not only won the youth and Latino vote by crushing margins, according to entrance polls, but also carried white voters, those with and without college degrees, male and female voters and caucus goers of every ideological stripe.
Chris Winchester, a 23year-old casino card dealer, backed the senator after his first choice, self-help guru
Marianne Williamson, dropped out several weeks ago.
“I just think that power needs to be given back to the people,” said Winchester, who caucused for Sanders at a community center in East Las Vegas. “It’s time for that and he stands for every single point that everyone who I feel with common sense has.”
The first-in-the-west contest, the third on the 2020 political calendar, took place strictly on the Democratic side; Republicans canceled their caucuses as Trump glides virtually unopposed to the GOP nomination.
Perhaps no candidate had more riding on the outcome than Biden, whose assertions of electability suffered grave damage after poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire. With signs that his support was rapidly ebbing, Biden was counting on a turnabout in Nevada to restore the faith of black voters, who had been his staunchest backers and make up well over half of South Carolina’s Democratic electorate.
Entrance poll interviews showed Biden winning more than a third of Nevada’s black vote, but Sanders was not far behind with more than one-quarter support.
Thea Thomas voted for Biden without much enthusiasm but a healthy dose of pragmatism. She cited his decades in elected office, service as President Barack Obama’s vice president and foreign policy expertise. Besides, the 45-year-old computer programmer said, she had her doubts about other candidates.
“His math doesn’t add up,” she said of Sanders’ health care and free-college proposals. “And neither does Elizabeth Warren’s.”
With large populations of black, Latino and Asian American voters, Nevada presented candidates with a more challenging and diverse electorate than they faced in overwhelmingly white Iowa and New Hampshire. More than 3 in 10 caucus goers were people of color, according to entrance polls, with Latinos making up the largest portion of the electorate, at nearly 20 percent.
Buttiegieg, in particular, was trying to show he could broaden his appeal beyond the more affluent white voters who have been his base of support but fell well short; he drew only 7 percent support among Latinos and 2 percent among black voters.
Warren, who shares many of the same positions as Sanders, failed to benefit much from a fiery debate performance Wednesday night in Las Vegas, perhaps because so many voters had already cast early ballots.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who placed a surprisingly strong third in the Granite State, was nowhere near as competitive in Nevada. Still, she told supporters at a home-state rally she had no intention of exiting the race.
“As usual, I think we have exceeded expectations,” Klobuchar said. “I always note that a lot of people didn’t even think I would still be standing at this point.”
Billionaire Tom Steyer, who is richly funding his campaign, finished far back despite vastly outspending his rivals on Nevada’s television airwaves.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who bore the brunt of attacks in his debating debut Wednesday night, was not competing in Nevada, choosing instead to focus on California and 13 other states that vote on March 3.
Nevada is a relative newcomer to the opening phase of the presidential race, holding its early caucuses only since 2008. (By contrast, New Hampshire this year celebrated the 100th anniversary of its first-inthe-nation primary.)
Still, Democrats responded with enthusiasm. Nearly 75,000 cast ballots during an early-voting window that ended Tuesday, making it virtually certain the overall number will top the 84,000 who turned out in 2016. That was reassuring to party leaders anxious to see if the political energy that helped Democrats win control of the House in 2018 has stayed strong.
But that high number also presented complications.
On Saturday, the ranked-choice preference of early voters — who could select up to five candidates — had to be calibrated with those voting in person to determine which candidates achieved either a 15 percent or 25 percent viability threshold, depending on the precinct, making them eligible to win delegates.
The balloting Saturday was part of an attenuated process that will ultimately result in the awarding of 36 pledged delegates to this summer’s Democratic nominating convention.
The caucuses are run by volunteers, not professional staff or government employees, and organizers were desperate to avoid the mishaps that left Iowa’s results inconclusive after nearly three weeks. Nevada quickly abandoned the software that had been used in Iowa and instituted other precautions aimed at avoiding a similar fiasco.
Despite its early place on the calendar, Nevada has been something of an afterthought for much of the campaign, drawing the full measure of candidates’ attention only after Iowa and New Hampshire cast their ballots.
Some Democratic leaders waited until those results came in before choosing whom to endorse, or deciding not to endorse at all. Among those who stayed neutral were Gov. Steve Sisolak and Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader and architect of the early caucuses.