Democratic Battle Lines Come Into Focus as Buttigieg and Klobuchar Endorse Biden

Obama said Biden had worked to reduce gun violence, fought to make college more affordable and championed legislation to protect women from violence while representing Delaware in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009 and as Obama’s vice president from 2009 until early 2017.

“Joe’s candid honest counsel made me a better president and a better commander in chief. All of this makes him the finest vice president we have ever seen. The best part is he’s nowhere close to finished,” Obama said.

Biden opened with a hunk of red meat.

“Everybody forgets why [historically black universities] came about in the first place. You weren’t allowed to go to other universities … As a consequence of that you don’t have the significant endowments other universities have. I promise you as president of the United States of America I’m going to fund HBUs by $70 million.”

“This will put you in a position to be able to compete because as everybody knows, you can do anything as well as anyone in the nation, you just need the wherewithal to compete,” he added.

On Super Tuesday, 1,357 delegates will be awarded — more than two-thirds of the 1,991 needed to win a majority of the 3,979 delegates in play for the whole nominating contest.

Biden said he won the South Carolina primary because he increased turnout among black voters in the Palmetto State by 160,000 compared to Obama’s first run for the presidency in 2008.

“Just a few days ago the pundits declared my campaign dead,” he said. “But I’m going to have something to say about it. As I stand here today because of minority communities I am very much alive.”

He added: “I think we’re going to do well here in Texas and when we do, we’re on our way to defeating Donald Trump.”

For his campaign to stay viable, Biden must do well in California and Texas, the two most lucrative states with 415 and 228 pledged delegates up for grabs, respectively.

“Most Americans don’t want a promise of revolution, they want a guarantee of results,” Biden said in a swipe at Sanders’ “Our Revolution” campaign motto.

The former vice president spoke for 20 minutes in Houston before heading to the events in Dallas.

Tori Cole, a 34-year-old IT consultant, said she has supported Biden since he launched his campaign and did not lose confidence in him despite his disappointing results in the early state contests.

“I knew he would bounce back once he got down to the South,” she said.

She said she supports Biden’s plans to expand the Affordable Care Act and give people a public option to enroll in a Medicare plan, and she doesn’t believe Sanders’ Medicare for All plan would work.

“I definitely don’t believe Bernie can deliver on Medicare for All, even with a Democratic Senate and House, as well as all the other free social programs he wants to deliver. I just don’t think it’s going to happen, it requires too much budget,” she said.

But Ayman Abdullah-Smoot, a 24-year-old TSU math major, said he voted for Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries and he’s still backing the U.S. senator from Vermont.

“I know that Biden has claimed he’s supportive of the civil rights movement but that’s been disputed. … Having seen video and photos of Sanders in the civil rights movement that shows his consistency with civil rights is just as strong with his consistency with everything else he’s advocating for,” he said.

Schwartz, the Sanders supporter, said he is living in Ohio and stopped in Houston to visit his sister. He developed a political habit growing up in Washington, D.C., he explained, and also attended a Houston rally for Elizabeth Warren last Saturday.

The political traveler then put his hex on Biden. “I don’t think Biden has a good shot in Texas,” Schwartz said, adding he thinks Sanders will win the most delegates in the state.

Schwartz opened up the website Reddit, an online platform frequented by millennials and younger generations that functions like a message board where users anonymously post links and discuss politics, news and movies among dozens of other topics in chat groups called “subreddits.”

“You go to Reddit, Sanders has 475,000 supporters on Reddit, and Biden has barely even 5,000,” Schwartz said.

Follow @cam_langford

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit