Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill, speaks to members of the press at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Tuesday, March 10, 2020.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill, speaks to members of the press at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. / AP

Wednesday on Political Rewind, former Vice President Joe Biden took a commanding lead in the race to the White House after a string of victories last night in key primary states, including Michigan.

The Democratic front-runner has picked up a new wave of endorsements from Georgia elected officials including former Gov. Roy Barnes and ex-U.S. Rep. Buddy Darden. They join early endorsements for Biden from other prominent state Democrats Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop.

 

Panel:

Alan Abramowitz — Professor of Political Science, Emory University

Greg Bluestein — Politics Reporter, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Andra Gillespie — Professor of Political Science, Emory University

Audrey Haynes — Professor of Political Science, University of Georgia

Karen Owen — Professor of Political Science, University of West Georgia

 

--Transcript Highlights--

Timecode: [00:18:53]

Greg Bluestein: I want to talk about the map ahead for Bernie Sanders, because you've got a Sunday debate in front of an empty audience now, because of the virus. There's no media filing center or spin room either because of fears of the disease. And then you've got next Tuesday where the map is pretty forbidding to him. These are states like Ohio, Illinois, Florida and Arizona; places where Hillary Clinton did very well and where Bernie Sanders is not expected to do very well.

Andra Gillespie: So here's what I'm looking at, particularly in Arizona and Florida. We've seen a divide between blacks and Latinos with respect to their support for Biden and Sanders. So black voters have broken for Joe Biden and Latinos have gone for Bernie Sanders. And I think it's, you know, probably two sides of the same coin. Groups that care about economic inequality but are trying to figure out which candidate is actually the best one to be able to to kind of address this. It would be interesting to see whether or not we see a shift in the Latino vote towards Biden as a result of Biden's momentum. So that's probably the one big thing that I'm paying attention to for next Tuesday.

Audrey Haynes: I've often tried to measure something called negative momentum. When you're losing and you've got someone with some positive momentum. My prediction would be in those races, we might see a lot of those Latino voters that potentially would have gone to Sanders staying home, because just like at a campaign, there is this big slump. You know, that's the feeling you get when you work in a campaign and you feel like there's no path forward. There's a sort of a backward push.

Alan Abramowitz: The polling in Arizona has had Biden ahead so far. And obviously, Latinos are a large chunk of that Democratic vote in Arizona. I have not see it broken down, but I would think that Biden is at least getting a substantial share of the Latino vote in Arizona and certainly in Florida.

 

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