The rush of support for Joe Biden underscores the desire by the establishment to rally around an alternative to Bernie Sanders

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Centrist Democrats candidates are rapidly rallying around Joe Biden following his decisive victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday.

Biden’s double-digit win effectively anointed the former vice-president as the most viable Democrat among the remaining centrist candidates in the field. And on Monday, a waterfall of endorsements poured down onto Biden’s campaign.

Amy Klobuchar drops out of 2020 race and will throw support behind Biden Read more

Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar suspended her presidential campaign and scheduled her endorsement for Biden during a rally in Dallas later on Monday. On Sunday, the former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg ended his campaign. He’s also expected to endorse Biden. Klobuchar and Buttigieg were two of Biden’s biggest rivals in the field.

The Biden campaign sent out over a dozen press releases on Monday, each one a new endorsement. Those endorsements included the former influential Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. Donors of the former candidates also flocked to Biden.

The rush of support for the former vice-president underscores the desire by a large swath of the Democratic establishment to rally around an alternative to Senator Bernie Sanders, the most liberal candidate in the field who recently rose to frontrunner status.

Billionaire and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren are still in the race ahead of Super Tuesday, but some Democrats see the primary as headed to a two-man fight between 78-year-old Sanders and 77-year-old Biden.

“The South Carolina race made clear that this is really coming down to Sanders and Biden,” said Tom Lopach, a veteran Democratic strategist. “As such, Democrats are coalescing because they recognize we need to beat Trump and we need someone who will be strong for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.”

As Sanders rose from a second tier position within the Democratic primary to being the frontrunner, some establishment Democrats have also both publicly and privately worried that if the Vermont senator won the nomination Democratic candidates around the country would suffer in their own races by Republicans pegging them as part of a party that would nominate a Democratic socialist for president.

“Bernie is problematic on every level you can count,” said Orin Kramer, a former top donor for Buttigieg who is now backing Biden. “Why do people leave buildings which are on fire? In other words, any Democrat running in the country – it doesn’t matter if it’s governor, state legislator, senator, House of Representatives – anyone who’s election is significantly reliant on swing voters, those people are all petrified of what Bernie would mean to them.”

Some Democrats also worry that Sanders simply might not be able to win over moderate Republicans or independents, resulting in a landslide win for Donald Trump in the November general election, similar to the 1972 presidential race where Republican Richard Nixon carried 49 out of 50 states against Democrat George McGovern.

“It’s about electability and it’s also the fact that Democrats understand that beating Donald Trump is job number one,” Lopach added.

But Biden remains the underdog. According to his most recent public filing, Biden only has about $7m in his war chest, while Sanders’ own report says the Vermont senator has about $16m. And Sanders has shown he can outraise every other candidate in the field.

Overall Sanders’ campaign has raised $134m while Biden’s campaign has raised about $69m, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission filings.

Biden needed the influx of support and donors he received since the South Carolina primary.

“I think this has the potential to really really help Joe Biden,” said Democratic strategist Eli Kaplan.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg and Warren showed no sign of exiting the race.

“I’m in it to win it,” Bloomberg told reporters on Monday.

Bloomberg opted to skip the first four primary states and has been betting his campaign on dominating the rest of the field on Super Tuesday through an aggressive and well funded campaign push in those states.

Sanders has also been laying the groundwork in the crucial set of Super Tuesday states.

“I think Sanders has a very formidable operation and I think he’s probably the favorite at this point but I think that Biden has gotten a lot of momentum in the last 48 hours,” Kaplan said. “Who knows, this thing could change on a dime.”