Joe Biden is about to hit a key milestone in a crucial race
It can be difficult to figure out the value of various political endorsements in the social media era. Newspaper endorsements no longer appear to carry much weight at all. The endorsement from a locally influential figure such as Jim Clyburn can count for a lot. Then there’s the matter of being endorsed by your former rivals.
When Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the race and endorsed Joe Biden ahead of Super Tuesday, Biden was already surging across the board – but the endorsements clearly helped him. Polls suggest that Mike Bloomberg’s subsequent endorsement has helped to steer his support strongly toward Biden. Now Kamala Harris has joined the fray. The numbers are growing.
In fact Joe Biden has now been endorsed by nine of his former 2020 Democratic presidential primary race rivals, once you include Beto O’Rourke, Deval Patrick, Tim Ryan, Seth Moulton, and John Delaney. There are still plenty of other former candidates who haven’t endorsed anyone yet, including Cory Booker, John Hickenlooper, Julián Castro, Elizabeth Warren Tom Steyer, Michael Bennet, Jay Inslee, Steve Bullock, Kristen Gillibrand, and Eric Swalwell (some lists out there have gone viral that have listed Swalwell as having endorsed Biden, but there’s no record of such an endorsement anywhere).
We don’t know who’s going to do what or when, but the next one that Biden picks up will be his tenth – and that’ll be a remarkable milestone. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders has been endorsed by two former 2020 candidates: embattled New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and controversial figure Marianne Williamson.
