A week after his handlers announced his campaign might not get a win in the first Democratic state out of the primary gate?
We find out that they ARE ramping up their Iowa operations footprint….
Joe Biden is flooding Iowa with more organizers than any of his rivals. He’s spending big on TV adshighlighting his personal tragedies. And he’s wooing former supporters of Bernie Sanders to tout his progressive bonafides.
Five months out from the start the 2020 Democratic primaries, the former vice president is attempting to lock down his softest support in the early voting states as quickly as possible as he braces for a fluid fall campaign. Biden’s consistently led in most polls, but his campaign is already tamping down expectations in Iowa and New Hampshire as local Democrats warn that he is falling behind other candidates in organizing.
“The fact is everyone’s vote is precarious,” said one Biden campaign adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We have the biggest universe to go after. … Our strategy is to get there first.”
Biden faces twin threats. Elizabeth Warren is steadily on the rise in Iowa, thanks to her robust organizing efforts and liberal policy plans. And Sanders’ allies are eyeing a repeat of 2016 in New Hampshire, when the Vermont senator won by double digits over Hillary Clinton. Even Biden’s top campaign lieutenants have name-checked Sanders and Warren as likely to be in the race for the long haul.
Biden’s standing appears precarious in the first two nominating states, according to interviews with more than a dozen activists there. Most said Warren was well ahead in local organizing and that Sanders’ core support would be hard to chip into….
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