DES MOINES, Iowa — Joe Biden’s campaign is working to dampen expectations ahead of Monday’s opening primary nominating contest in Iowa.
Aides to Biden, 77, have long tried to manage the expectations game for the former vice president in the first-in-the-nation state and New Hampshire, where other 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls have an organizing and home state advantage on him.
But while insisting Biden “remains in a strong position to perform well in the first four states and on Super Tuesday,” his team told supporters in a fundraising email Saturday morning they were “also planning for an extended process into the summer.”
Given the “small number of delegates” awarded in Iowa and New Hampshire, it is “highly possible there will be a small delegate differential among the top candidates on February 4 and February 12,” the campaign wrote.
“This only benefits Biden, who polls way ahead of the field in South Carolina and is uniquely situated to garner delegates on Super Tuesday,” their email stated.
Delaware’s senator for 36 years does have, on average, a 17-percentage-point lead on his closest rivals in South Carolina, according to RealClearPolitics. Yet in 2008, polls also showed Hillary Clinton having a double-digit margin on eventual winner Barack Obama. Surveys released this week also have him trailing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the delegate-rich states of California and Texas, two of 14 “Super Tuesday” states who weigh in on the race on Mar. 3.
Biden’s camp on Saturday, two days before the Iowa caucuses, foreshadowed his January haul as his “strongest month of fundraising since launch, with the vast majority of our growth coming through digital grassroots donations.”
Although Biden brought in his highest fundraising total in the final quarter of 2019, his $23.3 million still put him behind Sanders’s $34.5 million and Pete Buttigieg’s $24.7 million, but placed him in front of Elizabeth Warren’s $21.2 million.
Late Friday night, new financial disclosure documents revealed Biden had $8.9 million cash on hand as of Dec. 31. In comparison, Sanders had $18.2 million, Buttigieg $14.5 million, and Warren $13.7 million.
