2020 Democrats pitch down-ballot appeal on eve of Charleston debate
To a banquet hall full of South Carolina Democratic Party activists, Democratic presidential candidates zeroed in on Jaime Harrison’s race against Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in November, calling the former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman out by name and vowing to return to the Palmetto State to help him campaign in the months ahead.
“I’ll come campaign for you or against you, whichever will help you the most,” former Vice President Joe Biden quipped Monday night at the South Carolina’s Democratic Party dinner ahead of what is aiming to be a contentious debate in Charleston on Tuesday night.
Biden’s comment underscore another debate unfolding in S.C. Democratic circles over which Democrat at the top of the ticket will help or hurt competitive down ballot races — something South Carolina has for the first time in years in U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, a Democrat who took back the state’s 1st District congressional seat in 2018 after four decades of GOP control, and U.S. Senate hopeful Jaime Harrison, who already has eclipsed Democratic fundraising records for state runs for U.S. Senate.
Biden has been leading S.C. polls, but U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, has taken the lead nationally and is in striking distance of Biden in South Carolina. It’s a proximity that is too close for comfort for Biden backers who see the former vice president’s moderate positions as the best bet for beating President Donald Trump — and Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, as a threat to conservatives running in moderate districts.
Furthermore, following losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, and a distant second-place finish in Nevada, anything less than a strong finish in South Carolina on Saturday could spell trouble for Biden’s campaign, political observers say.
Should Biden lose Saturday’s contest it will put Biden in a “precarious” situation, as U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn reiterated to The State on Sunday.
In an effort to keep the Vermont senator — who has been leading polls nationally — at bay, Biden turned his sights on Sanders this week as the campaign shifted to South Carolina.
Biden started airing an ad questioning Sanders’ party loyalty, accusing the senator of considering a primary run against President Barack Obama. The ad says, “When it comes to building on President Obama’s legacy, Bernie Sanders just can’t be trusted.”
Democrats also have tried to sound alarms that electing Sanders as the nominee could have dire consequences on competitive down ballot races. Sanders attempted to counter those arguments on Monday night.
“I know you’re hearing on TV a lot, Bernie can’t win,” Sanders said. “Don’t believe everything you hear on TV. Truth is that on most, virtually all of the national polls, we are defeating Donald Trump.”
According to Politico, Sanders camp has denied ever considering running against Obama.
Biden also seized Monday on comments Sanders made Sunday night in a 60 Minutes interview expressing some support for Fidel Castro’s programs.
Sanders said he’s “opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know? When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?”
In a news release Monday, Biden campaign adviser Cristóbal Alex said the comments were part of a larger pattern of Sanders embracing “autocratic leaders and governments across the globe.”
“He seems to have found more inspiration in the Soviets, Sandinistas, Chavistas, and Castro than in America,” Alex wrote.
Biden’s backers also took swings at Sanders on Monday.
At a fundraiser Monday in Mount Pleasant — where guests included S.C. Democratic stars: U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, longtime Charleston Mayor Joe Riley and former Obama administration official and state schools chief Inez Tenenbaum, for example — supporters said Biden was the practical choice with appeal across the aisle, according to a pool report of the event from Jamie Lovegrove of The (Charleston) Post and Courier.
“Joe is the only candidate in this race who can get both the broad coalition and the reality-based policies that are needed to defeat Mr. Trump,” said Joe Rice, cofounder of the Motley Rice law firm, from his home.
“Joe is the only one with the experience and the heart to bring this country together and to fix Trump’s mess and get things done, whether it be on healthcare, on gun safety, on education, on housing or just basically restoring leadership in the world,” Rice said.
State Sen. Marlon Kimpson, a Charleston Democrat who recently endorsed Biden, also praised Biden for being picked by Obama to be vice president, “the best damn decision he has ever made,” Kimpson recalled Obama saying.
“Don’t be confused by the fantasyland nirvana proposals. It ain’t going nowhere. Sen. Sanders has spent more than 30 years up on Capitol Hill talking about the same thing and nothing has passed. Let’s not get it confused. We need somebody that we know somebody that has a proven track record of rolling up his sleeves and working hard for the middle class.”
Only recently have Democrats tried to sound alarms that electing Sanders the nominee could have serious consequences on down ballot races in South Carolina, including U.S. Rep. Joe Cunninghan’s 1st Congressional race that he won in the 2018 midterms.
Not naming a candidate or what specifically Republicans may attack Cunningham over, the state party chairman told the dinner on Monday that it’s up to Democratic voters to counter those attacks and say, “I know Cunningham, and you’re not telling the truth.”
Biden has tried to prove he is the only candidate that could help down ballot races, but not every South Carolinian is sold.
Simone Bonneau, 64, of North Charleston, told The State at the College of Charleston where Biden spoke before Monday’s dinner that early into the race she was behind the former vice president. However, she added, she wished Biden had fought back more when Trump and other Republican politicians attacked his son, Hunter Biden, during the impeachment hearings and trial related to his working with Ukraine.
Now she likes Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
“I think he’s (Biden) just flailing,” Bonneau said. “He looks weak.”
Bonneau, however, said she doesn’t want Sanders to be the nominee.
“He’s got the stigma of being a socialist, and I think Trump will use that against him,” Bonneau said, adding, “and I think there are Democrats that will not vote for him.”
That didn’t apply to every Democrat in the room on Monday.
“I think he has the longest history of just caring about the general public,” Lindsay Scarborough, 34, of Charleston, told The State. “I believe what he says and I believe that he is a genuine person that really really wants to help the working class, which I am.”
Scarborough brushed off criticisms of Sanders’ viability.
“He’s already shown that he’s successful,” Scarborough said of Sanders. “I think once he gets the backing of the other candidates that something they can collectively fight together.”
How Scarborough anticipates Tuesday night’s debate in Charleston will turn out?
“I think it’s going to get nasty,” she said.
This story was originally published February 24, 2020 at 11:39 PM.
