Victory gives Biden much-needed momentum – and he can now claim to be the most viable centrist challenger to Bernie Sanders

Joe Biden’s victory in South Carolina on Saturday night gave the former vice-president a much needed win within the 2020 Democratic primary contests, and put him at the front of the centrist candidates running as alternatives to Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.

Joe Biden desperately needed this victory. Can his campaign still be turned around? | Richard Wolffe Read more

The South Carolina primary contest was called for Biden almost immediately after polls closed. For months Biden and his team had maintained that regardless of how he did in first three contests of the Democratic race, South Carolina, with its large population of African Americans, would serve as a firewall for his campaign. And it did.

Biden struggled badly in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada but polls consistently showed him leading the field in South Carolina. A last-minute endorsement from South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn, the highest ranking African American Democrat in Congress, gave Biden a further boost as he soared ahead in the latest state polls.

Biden now can justifiably claim he is the most viable Democrat to rally centrist voters to his campaign. Former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg won the Iowa caucuses, the first primary caucuses, but has since not beaten Sanders in subsequent contests. Advisers for Buttigieg’s campaign had quietly told donors they did not expect him to come close to Biden in South Carolina.

Meanwhile, senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, who have both argued that they are more conventional and viable alternatives to Sanders from the center and the left respectively, have struggled to gain traction.

“The political obituaries of Joe Biden were always premature,” said Democratic strategist Jennifer Holdsworth. “This was always going to happen. What senator Sanders and his camp need to understand is regardless of what state we’ve had so far, more than 70% of the party is voting for somebody else. He is in no way consolidating anything except the same base he’s always had.”

In a sign of the momentum Biden quickly gained from his victory, former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democratic party elder, endorsed Biden. The Biden campaign also rolled out an endorsement from Virginia congressman Bobby Scott. Both endorsements came as Sanders himself was campaigning in Virginia.

And other centrist Democrats are preparing to take aim at Sanders. The Big Tent Project Fund, a 501(c)(4) group plans to spend millions in Super Tuesday states against Sanders.



“Big Tent Project will be spending nearly $4 million in Super Tuesday states to expose Bernie Sanders’ socialist policies that tonight’s results show voters overwhelmingly reject,” Jonathan Kott, the group’s executive director, said.

Former Obama campaign manager Daniel Plouffe said that the night’s result had clarified the race into a virtual two-candidate contest. “I think this is a two-person race right now,” Plouffe said. “There’s only two people I think are going to accept our party’s nomination. It’s either Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden.”

Centrist Democrat groups are preparing to take aim at Sanders. The Big Tent Project Fund, a 501(c)(4) group, plans to spend millions in Super Tuesday states against Sanders.

This is a very bad night for Michael Bloomberg. But this is not over. Stay tuned for Super Tuesday Jennifer Holdsworth

“Big Tent Project will be spending nearly $4m in Super Tuesday states to expose Bernie Sanders’ socialist policies that tonight’s results show voters overwhelmingly reject,” Jonathan Kott, the group’s executive director, said.

Sanders, in response to Biden’s victory, pointed to the first three primary contests.

“Now I am very proud that in this campaign so far we have won the popular vote in Iowa, we have won the New Hampshire primary, we have won the Nevada caucus but you cannot win em all,” Sanders said at a rally in Virginia. The rally was livestreamed into a sparsely attended Sanders election night party in Columbia.

“A lot of states out there, and tonight we did not win in South Carolina,” Sanders said, sparking boos from the audience. “And that will not be the only state: nobody wins them all. I want to congratulate Joe Biden. And now we head to Super Tuesday.”

Sanders added “the political establishment of this country – they’re getting very nervous about our campaign.”

Biden’s victory also calls into question former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s prospects. The billionaire media mogul decided to skip the first four primary states and pour his sizeable campaign war chest into the more than dozen states and territories that vote on Super Tuesday on 3 March. Bloomberg entered the primary late and has framed his candidacy as a more powerful alternative to Biden and other centrist candidates.

'Thank you, God': Trump revels in reign as absolute king of CPAC Read more

Bloomberg’s campaign released a statement from campaign manager Kevin Sheekey after the primary was called for Biden. The statement argued that the real test for the candidates still lay ahead.

“Mike Bloomberg has not been on the ballot yet. Our campaign is focused on organizing Democrats and building infrastructure in states all around the country,” Sheekey said in the statement. “Mike is the only candidate to campaign in all fourteen Super Tuesday states over the last two months and we look forward to Tuesday. Mike’s record of successfully leading and managing through crises and challenges is exactly what Americans are looking for in a new president.”

Holdsworth agreed that the race is far from decided.

“This is also a very bad night for Michael Bloomberg,” Holdsworth said. “But what I will say is this is not over. Stay tuned for Super Tuesday.”