Sen. Bernie Sanders greets supporters as he arrives at a campaign rally in Santa Ana, California ahead of Super Tuesday and the California Democratic primary. (Ronen Tivony / Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Super Tuesday is the decisive contest in the 2020 Democratic primary. California alone has 415 delegates up for grabs. Texas has 228. North Carolina has 110.

Those three states comprise more than half the delegates up for grabs on Super Tuesday and 38 percent of the delegate count needed to win the nomination.

On March 3, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hopes to secure a path to the nomination with huge victories in delegate-rich states. But that might be more challenging with South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) dropping out of the race. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to see the biggest jump in polls as he cements support from the moderate wing of the party.

Sanders, the top fundraiser with individual donors nationally, is the No. 1 Democratic recipient of campaign cash from each of these three important states. He’s also leading recent polls in those states.

California

Twenty-two percent of Sanders’ funds come from California, the most populous state in the U.S. His top organizational donor is the University of California, whose employees have contributed roughly $523,000. Workers from Silicon Valley tech giants Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple round out Sanders’ top five.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also gets about the same percentage of campaign money from California, where she’s currently a distant second in recent polls. The average California donor to Warren has given a total of $101, compared to $94 for Sanders.

That figure is much higher for Biden and Buttigieg, who both relied on big-dollar California fundraisers to rake in campaign cash. Buttigieg collected an average of $152 from California donors compared to $178 for Biden.

Sanders is steadily rising in California polls, reaching 30 percent support as of Wednesday. Polls find that Sanders is particularly popular with Latino voters. Fresno County, one of the nation’s most populous majority-Latino counties, provided Sanders with more than $180,000, three times as much as any other candidate. Sanders raised nearly four times as much as the second-best Warren in Tulare County, which is 65 percent Hispanic or Latino.

Biden on Wednesday announced new investments in Super Tuesday contests and in battleground voting after the March 3 showdown. But the former vice president has far fewer resources invested in California than billionaire Michael Bloomberg or Sanders, who each have two dozen offices in the Sunshine State compared to Biden’s one.

With the exception of Sanders, all of the non-billionaire Democrats are now relying on big-dollar super PACs going into Super Tuesday. Persist PAC, the group supporting Warren, announced Friday it would pump more than $12 million into California ad buys. The super PAC’s donors won’t be revealed until after voters make their choice on Super Tuesday.

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Wealthy California donors make up most of the money going to pro-Biden super PAC Unite the Country. Investor Richard Blum, husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), real estate giant George Marcus and Masimo founder Joe Kiani each chipped in $1 million. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman gave $500,000 and Silicon Valley investor Ronald Conway added $250,000.

Texas

The Lone Star state was thought to be a strong state for Biden, but the former vice president was trailing Sanders as of recent polls. Biden trails Sanders in Texas contributions too, taking in $3.3 million to Sanders’ $4.3 million.

Sanders fares better than his primary opponents in smaller, rural counties. As in California, Sanders outraises his opponents in most counties with large Hispanic populations, including Bexar and El Paso. He is by far the top recipient in Travis County, which includes Austin, the capitol and one of the more liberal cities in Texas.

However Sanders trails both Biden and Buttigieg in the more conservative Dallas County. Biden claims the top spot in Harris County, which is home to the state’s largest city, Houston.

Sanders’ footprint in Texas far outweighs Biden’s. He recently opened five offices in Texas and is hitting the airwaves with TV ads. Bloomberg is centering much of his entire campaign strategy around Super Tuesday, particularly Texas where he has 19 offices and at least 160 staffers.

North Carolina

Sanders is less popular in North Carolina than in California and Texas, but he’s still the top recipient of campaign cash from the Tar Heel state at nearly $2.1 million. Warren is second with $1.4 million and Biden is third with $1.3 million. Sanders is by far the most popular candidate in the Asheville metro area, while Biden gets far more money than the field from the Charlotte area.

Sanders and Biden are effectively tied in recent North Carolina polls, according to FiveThirtyEight. Both candidates predicted Sunday that they would win the state. Biden is hoping he can outperform polls as he did in South Carolina, where he won by nearly 30 points amid substantial support from African American voters.



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