HOUSTON — With vanquished center-left 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls lining up behind Joe Biden, several high-profile Bernie Sanders supporters are making veiled appeals for Elizabeth Warren to do the same for their candidate.
Biden, 77, is on the up after he crushed his competition in South Carolina, causing Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar to rethink their respective rationales for staying in the Democratic race for the White House. Now that they’ve dropped out, the pair, who exchanged some of the most personal barbs on the campaign trail and debate stage, will join the two-term vice president in Dallas on Monday for a show of unity against Sanders.
But backers of the Vermont senator, 78, aren’t taking the threat lying down, and “#WarrenEndorseBernie” trended on Twitter.
Peter Daou, a Sanders-aligned strategist who advised Hillary Clinton during the 2008 and 2016 election cycles, warned the Democratic establishment was “closing ranks” on the socialist.
“It’s #Bernie vs. #Biden,” he tweeted. “Time to decide where we each stand.”
THE DEM ESTABLISHMENT IS CLOSING RANKS.
Time to decide where we each stand.
A progressive party of the future or the same Dem leadership that has lost the courts, White House, Senate and seats across America.#SuperTuesday https://t.co/lEYAnnWEOu
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) March 2, 2020
Daou also made an explicit pitch to fans of Warren, a Massachusetts senator.
To #Warren supporters:
I praised her all year.
I’ve called out the media for ignoring her.
I have friends who work on her campaign and friends voting for her.
But the 2020 primary appears to be shaping up as #Bernie vs. #Biden.
So, #NotMeUs welcomes you with open arms.
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) March 2, 2020
Real Justice PAC co-founder and writer Shaun King, a prominent Sanders supporter who toured Texas on behalf of the campaign, noted “moderate, corporate, and conservative Democrats” were coming together against his contender’s “progressive agenda.”
“We will need to do the same thing,” he wrote.
Moderate, corporate, and conservative Democrats are clearly uniting together to defeat @BernieSanders and our progressive agenda.
We will need to do the same thing.
— Shaun King (@shaunking) March 2, 2020
Observers also speculated whether the Biden endorsement from former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, issued after his state’s first-in-the-West contest, was a subtle jab at Warren given his distaste for some of the compromises Biden made as President Barack Obama’s No. 2 and his working relationship with Warren.
It’s hard not to see this as a unsubtle hint to Warren. Nevada is in the past. He didn’t have to endorse at all
— Jackie Kucinich (@JFKucinich) March 2, 2020
Biden received a cascade of endorsements on Monday after his decisive win in South Carolina and before 14 states and one U.S. territory weigh in on the Democratic primary on Super Tuesday.
Sanders is predicted to sweep the multistate contest, particularly in delegate-rich California and Texas, but is anticipated to fall short of the 1,991 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. That result was mathematically more likely had candidates, such as Buttigieg and Klobuchar, remained in the race.
