HOUSTON — Though Joe Biden insists it wasn’t the deluge of Democratic establishment support that swept him to victory on Super Tuesday, that’s exactly what happened.
Bernie Sanders, Biden’s chief rival for the 2020 presidential nomination, complained after Super Tuesday that he was being treated with unprecedented “venom” as Democratic heavyweights and the “corporate media” work “frantically to try and defeat” his socialist campaign for the White House.
Despite being grateful for a slew of endorsements, Biden, 77, pegged the Vermont senator as a sore loser after the two-term vice president surprised political onlookers by winning big on Super Tuesday. That included Texas, giving Biden a lead in the delegate count heading into the March round of voting.
“You got beaten by overwhelming support I have from the African American community, Bernie. You got beaten because of suburban women, Bernie. You got beaten because of the middle-class, hardworking folks out there, Bernie. You’ve raised a lot more money than I have, Bernie,” he told NBC News Thursday morning.
But until South Carolina, Biden’s shot at the presidency was flat-lining after poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Sanders’s blowout triumph in Nevada and billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s bad first impression on the Silver State’s debate spooked Democratic figures.
While many were still reluctant to publicly back Biden, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn’s endorsement, granted only after a steady South Carolina debate performance, helped Delaware’s 36-year senator to a landslide victory in the first-in-the-South contest after months of touting the state as his firewall.
Biden’s almost 30 percentage-point win shook Democrats rattled into action by the likelihood of a socialist becoming their party’s nominee. Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race. Then the pair, along with fellow former Democratic opponent Beto O’Rourke, traveled to Dallas on Super Tuesday eve to support Biden, Klobuchar, and O’Rourke at an energized, nationally-televised rally.
[Related: Democrats’ stop-Sanders push shifts into top gear — rivals sacrifice themselves to help Biden]
Their endorsements, rolled out along with backing from Democratic stalwarts such as former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, weren’t just words.
O’Rourke’s popularity in Texas boosted Biden in the state his team had conceded to Sanders, live-streaming their trip to local food icon Whataburger, a campaign communications strategy harking back to his own bid.
Klobuchar, in turn, cut a radio ad for Biden, his team put together a TV ad based on her endorsement address, and her organizers and volunteers were deployed across Minnesota to ensure the state was in his ledger come Super Tuesday night.
The perception of momentum flowed onto Super Tuesday, Biden earning a total of 513 delegates to Sanders’s 461, with 1,991 delegates needed for the 2020 nomination.
New Hampshire state Rep. Tim Egan, an early Biden backer, said the Democratic establishment coalesced behind former President Barack Obama’s No. 2 because they were being “practical” about the electoral chances of the top of the ticket and down-ballot races.
“When Sanders talks ‘revolution’ people don’t see vision and hope, they see anger and fear. The Dems don’t think that will get them a leader that can bring folks together. And it’s proven by Sanders supporters being aggressive and condescending to Elizabeth Warren and Buttigieg, most notably, on social media,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Egan added, “The last week says, the Dems want to unite and win, not watch a fight all the way to Milwaukee just to lose in November.”
Although Biden is ascendant, success doesn’t always beget success.
Tom Cochran, a partner at public affairs firm 720 Strategies, warned Democrats the party doesn’t have a glowing record after picking “the safe candidate or the next in line.”
“Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton,” he listed. “Now interestingly, the last three were fairly complicated — Clinton and Gore both winning the popular vote and losing the Electoral College.”
