MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Joe Biden’s presidential campaign seemed to suggest that cracks are forming in the former vice president’s South Carolina firewall.
“We just talked to the folks down South Carolina. They’re pretty excited. So, we are going there. Going to stop there probably on the way to Nevada,” Biden announced in Salem, New Hampshire, on Monday.
.@JoeBiden announces he may be heading to his ‘firewall’ South Carolina before going to NV this week.
“We just talked to the folks down South Carolina, they’re pretty excited. So we are going there. Going to stop there probably on the way to Nevada…” he said in Salem, NH today
— Molly Nagle (@MollyNagle3) February 10, 2020
Biden, 77, is under pressure to perform reasonably well in New Hampshire’s primary election on Tuesday after a poor fourth-place showing in Iowa’s caucuses last week. The former vice president’s team has downplayed the importance of the first two Democratic presidential nominating contests since September, with the team’s candidate echoing those sentiments during last Friday’s New Hampshire debate and with voters on the campaign trail.
But, with only $9 million cash on hand as of Dec. 31, Democratic strategists and political commentators are critical of whether Biden can pull off the historic feat of losing Iowa and New Hampshire before rebounding in Nevada on Feb. 22 and South Carolina on Feb. 29, which are more diverse early voting states, to become the party’s standard-bearer.
Delaware’s senator for 36 years was confident he could finish fourth in New Hampshire and still go on to win delegates, keeping his third White House bid alive, in an interview with NBC.
“I’m going down to two very diverse states next, and I expect to do very well there. And, still, nationally, I’m still leading in all polls that I’m aware of, No. 1. No. 2, the endorsements keep coming in,” he told the outlet on Monday.
But his support both nationally and in South Carolina appears to be softening. He leads the field nationally by an average of 0.3 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics data. A Quinnipiac University poll released on Monday gave Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders an 8 percentage point advantage on the eve of the primary.
Looking to Biden’s southern strategy and his strong following in South Carolina, bolstered by his ties with African American voters in the “first in the South” state, leaves him with a comfortable average lead of 12.5 percentage points, RealClearPolitics reported. However, that margin pales in comparison to what it was last summer. A pair of Post and Courier polls conducted in December and January showed him ahead by only single digits.
