Los Angeles Times - 05.03.2020

A8 THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2020 S LATIMES.COM

■■■ ELECTION 2020 ■■■

cratic nominee is, they are
going to have to check all
those boxes,” he said.
Bonier and other party
strategists are confident
that challenge will prove eas-
ier to overcome than the
challenges Trump faces in
rebuilding his own winning
coalition. But the risks are
large for both Democratic
candidates, and for the
party.
Each of their campaigns
insists it is poised to draw
groups of voters who have
not been enthusiastic about
their politics and to craft a
pitch that crosses ideolog-
ical and demographic boun-
daries, as Obama succeeded
in doing in 2008.
But Obama, a relative
newcomer to the national
political stage then, charged
into his race free of the bur-
dens that Sanders and Bid-
en carry. Decades of experi-
ence helped propel the two
septuagenarian politicians
to the front of a huge field of
candidates this cycle, but
that also weighs them down
as they struggle to reach new
audiences.
“He’s going to talk about
building a big coalition,”
Sanders campaign co-chair
Ro Khanna, a Silicon Valley
congressman, vowed in a vi-
deo interview he posted
Wednesday on Twitter. “He
is committed to being a uni-
fier.”
That message reflected
an insurgent campaign
chastened by Super Tues-
day election returns that in-
dicated Sanders needs to
adjust his approach.
But even as the Biden
campaign reveled in its suc-
cess Tuesday, advisors ac-
knowledged that the former
vice president, too, must ex-
pand his reach.
“This is somebody whose
campaign is fundamentally

about hope and optimism,

but I think you’re going to

hear a lot that’s from the vice

president continuing about

not just the experience of the

past, but the vision for the

future,” Los Angeles Mayor

Eric Garcetti, a co-chair of

the Biden campaign, told re-

porters Wednesday.

Biden came out of Super

Tuesday with several ac-

complishments to boast of.

Turnout hit record levels in

some states he carried, nota-

bly Virginia. Biden did ex-

tremely well in suburban

areas among the sorts of

moderate voters — many of

them former Republicans —

who helped carry the Demo-

crats to victory in the 2018

midterm election.

But his limited reach

with voters younger than 45,

whom Obama was so suc-

cessful at energizing, is not

encouraging for a Demo-

cratic Party eager to attract

new blood.

All of the memes of Biden

in his aviator glasses and his

campaign trail talk about

student debt and sexual vi-

olence can’t mask some

tough numbers. He drew

just 17% of voters under 45 on

Super Tuesday, according to

exit polls.

Biden events routinely

feature far more gray heads

than nose rings. His old-

school political style, his

dated references to dead

politicians like South Car-

olina Sen. Fritz Hollings and

use of archaic words like

“malarkey” all send a gen-

erational message that

leaves many young voters

scratching their heads.

Many young Democrats be-

lieve the political and econo-

mic system isn’t working for

them and want candidates

who will shake things up, as

many polls have shown.

“There is a pretty steep

burden of proof for Joe Bid-

en, first, to show young vot-

ers that he gets all of that

and, second, that he can and

will make the kind of

changes that young voters

are seeking,” said Geoff

Garin, a Democratic pollster

unaffiliated with any presi-

dential candidate. “Some of

this is about policy and some

is just about tone and mind-

set and body language.”

The former vice presi-

dent’s lackluster results

with Latinos compound

questions about whether he

can make the inroads Demo-

crats have long sought in

Sunbelt states, notably Ari-

zona and Texas. Some see

worrisome echoes of Hillary

Clinton’s failed presidential

run in 2016, when the candi-

date’s dated messaging, es-

tablishment pedigree and

lack of energy on the cam-

paign trail left too many vot-

ers uninspired.

Yet it was Sanders who

had by far the tougher night

on Super Tuesday.

The Vermont senator has

built his campaign around

promises that he would mo-

bilize masses of voters who

had not participated in the

process before. He hasn’t.

Sanders did well with

those young people who did

show up, but he did not sig-

nificantly expand their turn-

out — as the candidate ac-

knowledged Wednesday.

“This is a campaign

which is trying to bring —

and it is not easy — people

who have not been involved

in the political process,”

Sanders said at a news con-

ference in Burlington, Vt.

“Have we been as suc-

cessful as I would hope in

bringing young people in?

The answer is no. ... Every-

body knows that young peo-

ple do not vote in the kind of

numbers that older people

voted. I think that will

change in the general elec-

tion.”

That is a big leap of faith

Sanders is asking of voters

looking for the candidate

who can drive turnout

against Trump. During his

remarks, Sanders spent a lot

of time arguing that building

his movement is hard, time-

consuming work. He spent

no time broadening his pitch

to voters.

The other major problem

the Vermont senator has

worked feverishly to fix —

without much success — is

lack of support among Afri-

can Americans.

Their chilly reaction to

him, especially in the South,

derailed his campaign in

2016. This week, those voters
      once again showed little en-
      thusiasm for him. They re-
      jected his candidacy in num-

bers so great that Sanders,

who went into Super Tues-

day widely projected to

gather most of the delegates

at stake, could not keep pace

with Biden.

Failure to generate a big

turnout among African

American voters contrib-

uted to Clinton’s loss of key

states to Trump in 2016, no-

tably Pennsylvania and

Michigan. Sanders’ weak-

ness with that key Demo-

cratic constituency could

once again cost him the

nomination, but also might

create a serious problem if

he were the nominee.

One bright spot for Sand-

ers was his win in California,

which he said shows he can

build a large multiracial co-

alition.

“If you look at people of

color in general — African

Americans and Latinos,

Asian Americans — we won

that big time” in California,

Sanders said. “Not even

close. So we are doing very

well with people of color;

we’re going to do better, I

think, with the African

American community.”

The Biden campaign

made similarly optimistic

comments about its appeal

to Latinos. Both campaigns,

though, struggled to articu-

late a coherent plan.

Asked how Biden would

increase his standing in the

Latino community, Garcetti

offered an anecdote involv-

ing a personal encounter be-

tween Biden and a young im-

migrant “Dreamer” in a Los

Angeles parking lot.

“I know that connection

voters feel with him,” the

mayor said. “And the more

they learn about him, the

more they love them.”

It was a moving anec-

dote. The next several weeks

will show whether either

campaign can turn such

gauzy hopes into reality.

Winner must evolve to challenge Trump

[Campaigns,from A1]

“WE ARE DOINGvery well with people of color; we’re going to do better, I think,

with the African American community,” Bernie Sanders said in Burlington, Vt.

Wilson RingAssociated Press

which continued its tabula-
tions in a process expected
to last weeks.
The former vice presi-
dent has experienced a 72-
hour period unlike any in
history, going from near po-
litical death to a thumping
victory in South Carolina’s
primary to a coast-to-coast
winning spree that vaulted
him into command of the
Democratic contest.
It was not apparently
anything he said or did dif-
ferently. Rather, it was a so-
lidifying sense among voters
— especially after two of Bid-
en’s center-left rivals, Min-
nesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
and South Bend, Ind., May-
or Pete Buttigieg, quit the
race after South Carolina —
that he would be the party’s
strongest candidate against
Trump in November.
In exit poll interviews
across a dozen Super Tues-
day states, conducted by Ed-
ison Research for a consor-
tium of TV networks, a ma-
jority of voters said choosing
a candidate who could beat
the president was more im-
portant than finding one
who agreed with them on is-
sues. They backed the more
moderate Biden over-
whelmingly over Sanders
despite a series of middling
debate performances and a
decades-long history of
malapropisms and other
gaffes.
“The weaknesses of Joe
Biden did not disappear,”
said Peter Hart, who has
spent decades strategizing
for Democratic candidates
and causes but has stayed
neutral in the current con-
test. “They landed on Joe
Biden for a simple reason,
and that is because he’s a
known and safe quantity.
“The story,” Hart said, “is
not the candidates. The
story is the voters. Beating
Donald Trump is the uni-
fying force.”
Biden’s powerful showing
propelled him past Sanders
in the pledged delegate
count, 566 to 501, though the
number will change along
with the vote totals. It takes
1,991 pledged delegates to
win the nomination on the
first ballot at Democrats’
summer nominating con-
vention.
Sanders, who could have
essentially wrapped up the
contest with a commanding
Super Tuesday perform-
ance, was undeterred by
Biden’s surprising surge and
their change in fortunes.
He released a flight of

new TV advertising criticiz-

ing Biden’s record on Social

Security and trade and ally-

ing himself with President

Obama. At a pugnacious

news conference at home in

Vermont, Sanders took

fresh aim at Biden for ac-

cepting campaign contrib-

utions from billionaires and

corporate interests, even as

he said he didn’t want to

make their differences per-

sonal.

“I like Joe. Joe is a decent

guy and I do not want this

campaign to degenerate

into a Trump-type epic

where we are attacking each

other,” Sanders said. “That

is the last thing this country

wants. Joe has his ideas, his

record, his vision for the fu-

ture, and I have mine.”

But a senior Biden aide

took umbrage at the adver-

tising Sanders is airing, say-

ing the TV spots were remi-

niscent of the kinds of at-

tacks he lobbed in his unsuc-

cessful primary fight against

Hillary Clinton four years

ago, which some Democrats

blame for Trump’s victory.

“We’ve seen what kind of

campaign Bernie Sanders

runs and we saw the impact

it had in 2016,” deputy cam-

paign chief Kate Bedingfield

told reporters.

At a brief Wednesday ap-

pearance at the W Los Ange-

les hotel, Biden urged unde-

cided Democrats to join his

resurgent campaign, sound-

ing practically Sanders-like

as he said he wanted “to

build a movement” with “a

progressive vision” to defeat

Trump.

“We’re going to bring to-

gether all Americans — we

showed that last night — re-

gardless of your race, your

gender, your disability, your

ethnicity, Democrats, Re-

publicans, independents,

every stripe. I really mean

that,” Biden said.

He declined to take ques-

tions, but did respond to one

reporter who asked him

about Sanders’ claims that

the “establishment” was

combining forces against

the democratic socialist.

“The establishment are all

those hard-working, middle-

class people, those African

Americans,” Biden said.

“They are the establish-

ment!”

From here, the race bar-

rels into half a dozen states

that vote Tuesday.

The most significant,

Michigan, will test the candi-

dates’ competing appeal to

working-class voters and of-

fer a dry run of sorts for No-

vember, when Democrats

hope to win back the state

that was part of a “blue wall”

of party strength in the in-

dustrial Midwest. Trump’s

narrow victories in Michi-

gan, Wisconsin and Pennsyl-

vania put him in the White

House after he failed to win

the national popular vote. A

week later, Democrats will

vote March 17 in three states

important to the general

election: Arizona, Florida

and Ohio; in between, the

next Democratic debate will

be held March 15 in Phoenix.

Both candidates face

challenges ahead, with doz-

ens of contests and several

months remaining in the pri-

mary season.

A key question is whether

Biden can win over the

younger and more liberal

voters — especially Latinos

— who have responded to

Sanders’ call for revolution-

ary changes in politics and

the country’s economic sys-

tem. Sanders continues to

fare poorly among black vot-

ers, a crucial Democratic

constituency, who delivered

Biden a string of victories

across the South.

For Warren, the question

is more pressing still:

whether to carry on at all.

In a staff memo issued

Wednesday morning, cam-

paign manager Roger Lau

acknowledged that Super

Tuesday’s results “fell well

short of viability goals and

projections.”

“We are obviously disap-

pointed,” he said, adding

that Warren was assessing

what her next steps would

be. “She’s going to take time

right now to think through

the right way to continue

this fight.”

Sanders said at his news

conference that he had spo-

ken to his fellow senator by

phone and was disgusted by

supporters who expressed

anger that Warren had not

dropped out. She should

“make her own decision in

her own time,” Sanders said.

Rebecca Katz, a prog-

ressive Democratic strate-

gist backing Warren, cau-

tioned against assuming the

race was suddenly over, now

that Biden has pulled ahead

and much of the party estab-

lishment has rallied to his

side.

“We all need to take a

deep breath before we draw

any conclusions about how

this race is going to go,” Katz

said. “How many times al-

ready have people declared

the race is over?”

Times staff writers Arit

John, Seema Mehta and

Matt Pearce contributed to

this report.

Biden-Sanders contest takes shape

[Democrats, from A1]

JOE BIDENtold reporters in Westwood that he wanted “to build a movement” with “a progressive vision” to beat President Trump.

Genaro MolinaLos Angeles Times

DELEGATE COUNT

The delegates held by

current and former

Democratic presidential

candidates (1,991 needed

to win the nomination):

566

Joe Biden

501

Bernie Sanders

61

Elizabeth Warren

53

Michael R. Bloomberg

26

Pete Buttigieg

7

Amy Klobuchar

Tulsi Gabbard has one delegate

Associated Press