Biden gets heckled about his son at a campaign event, Warren goes on the offensive, and Sanders botches an endorsement of a Congressional candidate – Catch up on the biggest horse race developments in this week’s 2020 recap.
Fmr. Vice President Joe Biden
Hunter Problems: Questions surrounding the actions of his son Hunter continue to dog Biden on the campaign trail. Last week at a campaign stop in San Antonio, a protestor confronted Biden about Hunter’s work in Ukraine. Biden supporters drowned out the protestor which prompted the former vice president to say, “This man represents Donald Trump very well. He’s just like Donald Trump.”
Only One Term?: Last week, a rumor surfaced that the former vice president was signaling to aides that he will serve only a single term if he is elected next year. According to advisers, Biden is quietly indicating that he will almost certainly not run for a second term and will choose a running mate to take over in 2024. Biden’s deputy campaign manager threw cold water on the reports, however, saying “this is not a conversation our campaign is having and not something VP Biden is thinking about.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders
Endorsement Blunder: Late last week, Sanders announced he was endorsing Democrat Cenk Uygur, a progressive candidate in the competitive race to replace former Rep. Katie Hill in California’s 25th Congressional District. Uygur is mostly known for his popular progressive talk show “The Young Turks,” but he also has a history of making problematic statements and videos. Following backlash over the move, Sanders quickly rescinded his endorsement.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Debate Coup: Over the weekend, Warren threatened to boycott Thursday’s sixth primary debate because food service workers at Loyola Marymount University, the debate host, are in a contract dispute with a university subcontractor. Warren, who said she was unwilling to cross the picket line, was quickly joined by Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang, and within about an hour all seven candidates had made the same pledge. The workers have since come to a tentative agreement with the subcontractor and the debate is expected to take place as scheduled.
On The Offensive: Warren, whose campaign appears to have stalled, went after Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg at an event last Thursday. Using some of the most pointed language of her campaign so far, Warren accused them of catering to ultra-wealthy donors and being “naïve” about what it will take to achieve real progressive change.
Wealth Tax Unlikely To Raise Projected Revenues: Earlier this year, Warren proposed a tax of 2 percent on net worth between $50 million and $1 billion, and a tax of 6 percent on net worth above $1 billion. According to her campaign, the tax would raise $3.75 trillion in federal revenue over a decade and could be used to fund a several of her policy proposals. However, according to new projections from the Penn-Wharton Budget Model (PWBM), its “best estimate” is that Warren’s proposed wealth tax would raise about $2.7 trillion over 10 years without accounting for macroeconomic effects.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Wall Street Pete: Last week in New York at one of his first high-dollar fundraisers since he agreed to open them up to the press, Buttigieg was greeted by a group of protestors who criticized the candidate’s reliance on big money donors to fund his campaign.
Campaign Bundlers Revealed: After facing pressure to reveal his campaign’s biggest financial backers, Buttigieg’s campaign released a list of 113 bundlers last Friday. The list covers everyone who has raised at least $25,000 for the campaign and includes Hamilton James, executive vice chairman (and former president) of the private equity giant Blackstone, and Adam Barth, a partner at McKinsey and Co., the management consulting firm where Buttigieg once worked.
Michael Bloomberg
Wildly Unpopular: Despite electability being a central pillar of Bloomberg’s campaign, a new national Monmouth University poll found about twice as many registered voters rated him negatively as positively — 54 percent unfavorable, 26 percent favorable. The margin is significantly worse than the five other Democratic candidates, as well as for President Trump.