Boosting Joe Biden: Is Buttigieg and Klobuchar's endorsement the DNC's big move to thwart Bernie Sanders?
The Democratic Party had one man to defeat at the beginning of the 2020 presidential election primary season and it was President Donald Trump. But by the time the first Super Tuesday (March 3) arrived, that count had changed to two men -- the second being Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. The 78-year-old is leading the party’s presidential race in the run-up to the Super Tuesday when over 1,300 delegates will be up for grabs.
Sanders did pretty well in the first three caucuses/ primaries (Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada) and just when he was looking to run away with the nomination, former vice president Joe Biden made a strong comeback in South Carolina on Saturday, February 29, to get back into the reckoning. His thumping victory has now put Biden just six delegates short of Sanders’ 60 and both veterans will now look to make the most on the first Super Tuesday.
As the country gradually progressed towards the battles of March after Sanders mostly won February, three candidates dropped out in quick succession and they are billionaire Tom Steyer, former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar. On Monday (March 2) night, Biden got endorsements from Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke, who was also in the race till November 1, 2019.
These endorsements are set to give the 77-year-old former No. 2 at the White House a much-needed boost and assure the Democratic centrists that Sanders can still be stopped.
Fourteen states and one territory are headed for the primaries to select the presidential nominee on Tuesday. Speaking at a rally in Dallas, Klobuchar said while standing by Biden that it is a great feeling to be next to the former vice president on a stage which is not related to debating. “If we spend the next four months dividing our party and going at each other, we will spend the next four years watching Donald Trump tear apart this country,” the centrist former presidential hopeful said at the Texas city.
“It is up to us, all of us to put our country back together, to heal this country and then to build something even greater. I believe we can do this together, and that is why today I am ending my campaign and endorsing Joe Biden for president!” the 59-year-old added. She did poorly in all the primary contests she fought.
Beto O'Rourke and Pete Buttigieg endorse Biden
The next guest in to endorse Biden was O’Rourke who ran with almost a single-point agenda of gun control till he was in the race. The rising Democrat from the Lone Star State told the crowd that he would be casting his ballot for Biden when Texas goes to polls on Super Tuesday.
“It's the right thing to do. Let me tell you why. We need somebody who can beat Donald Trump. The man in the White House today poses an existential threat to this country. To democracy. To free and fair elections. And we need somebody who can beat him and in Joe Biden we have that man. We have someone who is the antithesis of Donald Trump. Joe Biden is decent, he's kind, he's caring, he's empathetic,” he added.
Ironically, in June last year, O’Rourke dismissed the idea of Biden getting the nomination, saying it would be tantamount to going to the past.
When it came to Buttigieg, a promising candidate who started off well and lost out in the more diverse states, the scenes were more emotional. When the former mayor endorsed Biden at the same venue on Monday, the latter said Buttigieg reminded him of his late son Beau, an Iraq War veteran who passed away in 2015 at the age of 46 after a prolonged battle with brain cancer.
Buttigieg was seen acknowledging the parallel by lowering his head while listening to Biden.
These endorsements were underlined by the political more than anything else. It is stressful to think that people like Buttigieg and Klobuchar did not endorse Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who had made the gender issue something of significance in this election cycle. With Biden now getting a massive boost through the endorsements, a poorly doing Warren -- also with left-leaning credentials -- is now almost destined to lose out.
But at this moment, the Democratic Party is at a critical junction and it is about stopping Sanders’ run.
DNC and Sanders on collision course
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) was particularly worried with Sanders’ progress and his viewpoint that the candidate ending up with the most number of delegates should automatically be made the nominee. The DNC was irked with Sanders’ rebellious take on flouting the rules and soon after, the series of exits and endorsements came.
Did the DNC ask the Buttigiegs and Klobuchars to step down and back Biden?
Even if it's theoretical, it can’t be ruled out. The DNC wants a moderate to take on Sanders strongly and hence the message was sent out to the moderate candidates to follow one line. Biden is the best bet since he is experienced and connects well with the colored voters compared to Buttigieg and Klobuchar who are also comparatively inexperienced. Biden also has a much better ranking now after the SC show and is the best positioned to beat Sanders.
John Dinan of Politics and International Affairs at the Wake Forest University, North Carolina, told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW): “It is reasonable to assume that some conversations have taken place between Democratic Party officials and strategists and several of the presidential candidates whose campaigns were faltering, such as Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, for the purpose of encouraging these candidates to drop out of the race sooner rather than later, with an eye to consolidating support for Joe Biden and making it more difficult for Bernie Sanders to win the nomination."
DNC Chair Tom Perez stresses on unity of Democratic Party
The DNC has indeed weighed in ahead of the Super Tuesday battles and its chair Tom Perez hinted at the need for a Democratic unity ahead of the polling day. In an interview to 10 On Your Side, he said: “My plea for everybody is vote who you think will be best, and if that person that you’re supporting doesn’t make it to the mountaintop, make sure we all come together because our unity is indeed our greatest strength. And that is what will carry us across the finish line.”
Last Friday, November 28, Perez also had an uncomfortable meeting with the party’s voters in the key state of Michigan. During the conversation in Detroit, the voters expressed their worry over the Dems not being able to unite behind a single candidate. The candidates’ attacking each other in debates and the possibility of a candidate winning the most number of delegates but not a majority have been issues that made the Democratic supporters uneasy. Perez hinted at a unity then also, saying presidential debates in the past also saw heated debates that eventually led to differing camps in the party coming together, Detroit Free Press reported.
“But every single person running for president knows that this is not about them. This is about something much more important. This is about our democracy, as we know it,” the DNC chair added.
A possible back-room deal seeing Pete agreeing to run as the vice president on a joint ticket with Biden, Klobuchar and Warren can’t be ruled out either, said a report in the Independent. The DNC might yet try to project Buttigieg as a future presidential matter given the case that neither Sanders nor Biden would be the president for the second term even if any of them manage to beat Trump this year. Buttigieg might have two futile bids to get elected to top posts (DNC chair in 2017 and president in 2020) but he has already made himself a national face now and can serve in the long-term to boost the party’s center-left ranks.