Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign is making a heavy investment in the 14 states scheduled to hold their primary on Super Tuesday.
Politico reported on Thursday Biden’s campaign would spend the next few weeks, “building out a formal Super Tuesday apparatus” at its campaign headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To that end, Biden’s campaign plans to invest manpower in delegate-rich Super Tuesday states like Texas and North Carolina.
The move comes even though the Biden campaign announced on Thursday it was launching a six million dollar ad buy in the early primary and caucus states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. Most political observers, however, view the ad buy as a way for Biden to remain credible in the early states in order to remain in the race until Super Tuesday when his standing with moderate and black voters across is likely to carry the day.
As Breitbart News reported on Wednesday, the former vice president has a built-in firewall across the South that is likely to keep his campaign afloat even if he were to lose the first three contests. South Carolina, which according to a recent poll is Biden’s to lose, will play an instrumental role in that strategy since its primary will be the last before Super Tuesday.
A resounding victory in South Carolina would give the former vice president major momentum heading into the 14 Super Tuesday contests, seven of which will be held in the South. From there the math would work in Biden’s favor. In total, the seven Southern Super Tuesday states will have more than 670 delegates up for grabs on Super Tuesday — more than a third of the 1,885 required for a candidate to win the nomination. In contrast, as Politico noted on Thursday, the four early states will only have 155 delegates up for grabs between them.
Biden’s strategy is buoyed by the fact he leads his fellow 2020 competitors in all seven of the Southern Super Tuesday states — Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee — handily. Recent polling from Texas and North Carolina alone, two states of the largest states on the ballot with more than 350 delegates combined, indicates Biden dominates his opponents by double digits.
“If history is any guide, this will likely be a two-person race coming out of South Carolina, and whomever emerges from Super Tuesday with a significant delegate lead will be extremely difficult to catch,” a senior Biden staffer told Politico.
Biden’s chances are further bolstered by the fact that some congressional districts will have more delegates to award that others, thanks to rules set forth by the Democratic National Committee and local party committees. Given such circumstances, Biden’s team has focused its efforts on garnering endorsements from members of congress and other elected officials representing such districts with an outsize number of delegates. Biden’s team plans to double down on this strategy as it begins expanding its reach into Super Tuesday states.
“The endorsement slates we’ve rolled out are proof of the time and energy we’ve put into these states to date,” Pete Kavanaugh, the former vice president’s deputy campaign manager of states, told Politico. “No one has been able to release remotely close to what we have.”
It is unclear though if such efforts will be enough for Biden to overcome a loss in the first three primary sates. Despite Biden’s campaign claiming “history” as their “guide” regarding the importance of Super Tuesday, they also seem to be ignoring the broader precedent that no Democrat has lost the first three primary contests and gone one to win the nomination since 1992.