Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: US Democratic Primary 2020

  • Harris Is a Good Choice

    Kamala Harris
    Democratic senator Kamala Harris of California listens during a meeting in Los Angeles, April 21, 2017 (Office of Senator Kamala Harris)

    Joe Biden has tapped California senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential candidate for the election in November.

    It’s a good choice. Elite-educated, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, a former prosecutor and incumbent senator, Harris ticks many of the right boxes.

    When she herself ran for president earlier this year, I argued Harris was “ideologically right where many Democrats want their candidate to be.” She could appeal to key Democratic constituencies: “women, voters of color, party loyalists and West Coast progressives.” (more…)

  • Democratic Primary News

    • Joe Biden has become the presumptive Democratic nominee.
    • Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard, his last two opponents, have ended their campaigns and endorsed the former vice president.
    • So have Barack Obama, the former president, and Elizabeth Warren, another former rival. (more…)

  • Sanders Is Right to Quit

    Bernie Sanders
    Vermont senator Bernie Sanders gives a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, July 18, 2015 (Gage Skidmore)

    Bernie Sanders has ended his bid for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in the United States.

    It’s the right decision.

    Sanders had virtually no chance of defeating former vice president Joe Biden anymore. Prolonging the contest would only delay the reconciliation of Sanders’ supporters with a Biden candidacy and make it harder for Democrats to decide whether to vote at all amid the outbreak of coronavirus. (more…)

  • Biden Wins Primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois

    • Former vice president Joe Biden won the Democratic presidential primaries in Arizona, Florida and Illinois on Tuesday.
    • His opponent, Bernie Sanders, is falling behind in delegates.
    • The three states allocated 441 of the 3,979 delegates to the nominating convention in July.
    • Democrats on the Northern Mariana Islands caucused three days earlier. (more…)

  • Biden Wins Primaries in Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi

    • Former vice president Joe Biden won four of the six states that held Democratic presidential primaries on Tuesday.
    • He is neck and neck with his rival, Bernie Sanders, in North Dakota and Washington state.
    • 365 out of 3,979 delegates were at stake. (more…)

  • Biden Is Not a Centrist

    Joe Biden
    American vice president Joe Biden listens during a meeting in the Situation Room of the White House in Washington DC, February 2, 2015 (White House/Pete Souza)

    Media reports commonly describe American presidential candidate Joe Biden as a “centrist”. He’s not.

    Michael Bloomberg is a centrist. Biden may be moderate compared to his Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders. But compared to the more likely alternative, Donald Trump, Biden is decidedly center-left.

    This is not just semantics. If a centrist wins the Democratic nomination, some of Sanders’ supporters may be reluctant to vote for him. A center-left candidate, which Biden is, deserves their support. (more…)

  • Democratic Primary News

    Joe Biden has become the clear frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in the United States.

    • Delegates: Biden has won 642 pledged delegates against 566 for Bernie Sanders so far. 1,991 are needed to win the nomination outright.
    • States: Biden won ten of the fourteen states that held primaries on “Super Tuesday” and he is polling in first place in Michigan, Mississippi and Missouri, which vote next Tuesday. Sanders is ahead in Washington state.
    • Popular support: Biden’s national support has shot up from under 20 percent to an average of 34 percent since he won the South Carolina primary a week ago.
    • Party support: Sixty more prominent Democrats have endorsed Biden in the wake of his South Carolina victory.
    • Competitors: All other major candidates have quit, most recently Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren. (more…)

  • Sanders Claims He Can Raise Turnout. He Hasn’t So Far

    Bernie Sanders
    Vermont senator Bernie Sanders gives a speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, October 30, 2015 (Michael Vadon)

    Bernie Sanders argues he can defeat Donald Trump by convincing more Americans to vote. A self-declared socialist may lose some swing voters by campaigning on nationalizing health insurance and raising middle-class taxes, but he can make up for it, Sanders argues, by mobilizing young and working voters.

    It’s always seemed unwise to me to bet on potential voters rather than actual voters. Now that skepticism has been substantiated. (more…)

  • Biden Sweeps Super Tuesday States, Bloomberg Quits

    • Former vice president Joe Biden won ten of the fourteen states that held Democratic presidential primaries on “Super Tuesday”, including Elizabeth Warren’s home state Massachusetts and delegate-rich Virginia and Texas.
    • His socialist rival, Bernie Sanders, won in California, Colorado, Utah and Vermont.
    • Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg ended his presidential campaign after failing to win any contest except the caucuses on American Samoa.
    • 1,344 pledged delegates were at stake, a third of the total (3,979) and two-thirds of the delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot (1,991). (more…)

  • Why Democrats Are Scared of Sanders

    Bernie Sanders
    Vermont senator Bernie Sanders gives a speech in Brooklyn, New York, April 8, 2016 (Timothy Krause)

    Why is the Democratic Party establishment in the United States scared of Bernie Sanders? Polls suggest the socialist from Vermont would do about as well against Donald Trump in a general election as his rival, Joe Biden.

    I suspect there are three reasons:

    1. Democrats don’t trust the polls.
    2. They worry that, even if Sanders might defeat Trump, he would hurt down-ballot Democrats.
    3. They don’t want their party to be taken over by an outsider, like the Republican Party was in 2016. (more…)

  • Biden Wins South Carolina Primary, Steyer Drops Out

    • Former vice president Joe Biden has won the Democratic primary in South Carolina on the back of overwhelming support from African Americans.
    • Vermont senator Bernie Sanders placed a distant second.
    • Billionaire Tom Steyer ended his presidential campaign after failing to qualify for delegates. (more…)

  • Democratic Primary News

    • Joe Biden has risen in the South Carolina polls seemingly at the expense of the other center-left candidates.
    • Biden has also taken a commanding lead in the endorsement primary, most recently winning the support of South Carolina’s most prominent Democrat: Congressman James Clyburn.
    • Bernie Sanders has far less support from party officials, but he has won the endorsement of New York mayor Bill de Blasio, himself briefly a 2020 hopeful.
    • Biden needs a win in South Carolina, where one in six Democratic voters are black, to breathe new life into his campaign.
    • Sanders is wildly popular in California, the largest state to vote on Super Tuesday, March 3, but Biden leads in the few polls that have been conducted in Florida and Georgia. In North Carolina, Texas and Virginia, Biden, Michael Bloomberg and Sanders are neck and neck.
    • Bloomberg won’t be on the ballot in South Carolina. (more…)

  • Time for Sanders’ Opponents to Put Their Heads Together

    Bernie Sanders
    Vermont senator Bernie Sanders gives a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, July 18, 2015 (Gage Skidmore)

    After the New Hampshire primary, I argued it was too soon for center-left Democrats to panic about a possible Bernie Sanders nomination. Now that it looks like the self-described socialist will walk away with at least half of Nevada’s delegates, it’s time for his opponents to worry.

    Unlike Republicans, Democrats don’t award their delegates to whoever receives the most votes in a given state. So there is little risk of Sanders winning a majority of the delegates to the national convention in July against two or three opponents, like Donald Trump was able to prevail with 45 percent support against Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Marco Rubio in 2016.

    However, if more candidates split the anti-Sanders vote, each would struggle to meet the 15 percent support required to qualify for delegates. Under those circumstances, Sanders could win a majority. (more…)

  • Sanders Wins Nevada Caucuses, Biden Places Second

    • Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has won the Democratic caucuses in Nevada, the most diverse state yet to vote in the presidential nominating contest.
    • Former vice president Joe Biden placed second.
    • Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren did not qualify for delegates. (more…)

  • Democratic Primary News

    • Bernie Sanders is now faraway the frontrunner with recent polls giving him 27 to 32 percent support nationally. Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg are vying for second place with an average of 16-18 percent support each.
    • Sanders also leads in the few polls that have been taken in Nevada, where Democrats caucus on Saturday.
    • Biden is still ahead in the endorsement primary, winning nine more endorsements from prominent Democrats this month, but Bloomberg is catching up fast, with twenty endorsements in February.
    • Bloomberg is also making inroads with black voters. He has been endorsed by three members of the Congressional Black Caucus. A Quinnipiac University poll (PDF) gives the former New York mayor 22 percent support from African Americans, trailing only Biden, who has 27 percent.
    • Bloomberg is spending more money on television commercials than all the other candidates combined.
    • Michael Bennet, Deval Patrick and Andrew Yang have ended their presidential bids after failing to qualify for delegates in New Hampshire. (more…)