Joe Biden wins endorsements from former rivals ahead of Super Tuesday

Former Vice President Joe Biden and former Second Lady Jill Biden speak to supporters Feb. 3 in Des Moines after the Iowa Democratic caucuses. 

Jake Webster

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign received an influx of endorsements from former presidential rivals while campaigning in Texas ahead of the Super Tuesday primaries.

“I’m sure it will make some difference in Biden’s favor,” said Mack Shelley, Iowa State professor and chair of the political science department. “I don’t think there’s anything automatic about a candidate endorsing another candidate. That means that candidate A’s endorsement of candidate B doesn’t guarantee that all A’s supporters will vote for candidate B.”

Democratic voters across 14 states will take part in the single biggest election day of the 2020 Democratic primary cycle Tuesday. Those 14 states include some of the most populous in the country, with California, Texas and North Carolina among them. Together, they will allocate 34 percent of the delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention scheduled to take place in July in Milwaukee. Those delegates decide the party’s nominee.

Some voters may have already cast their ballots for candidates who have since dropped out, and late endorsements cannot change votes already sent in.

“So for the states that had early voting, fundamentally, that means California, […] Texas too you have others that are pretty sizable, North Carolina, Virginia and Massachusetts I would imagine the deal is pretty much done as far as California goes anyway because [Sen. Bernie] Sanders had been running pretty high there,” Shelley said. “Texas, I don’t know, last I saw, Sanders was ahead in Texas by at least a small margin.”

Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke all endorsed Biden on Monday, speaking at events alongside him in Texas.

“You know, when I ran for president, we made it clear that the whole idea was about rallying the country together to defeat Donald Trump and to win the era for the values that we share, and that was always a goal that was much bigger than me becoming president,” Buttigieg said in Dallas. “And it is the name of that very same goal that I am delighted to endorse and support Joe Biden for president.”

Buttigieg ended his campaign late Sunday and hinted at a potential endorsement in his speech to supporters in Indiana.

“We need leadership to heal a divided nation, not drive us further apart,” Buttigieg said on Sunday. “We need a broad-based agenda to truly deliver for the American people, not one that gets lost in ideology. We need an approach strong enough not only to win the White House, but hold the House, win the Senate and send Mitch McConnell into retirement.”

Klobuchar ended her campaign Monday and flew to Dallas to offer her own endorsement to Biden, taking the stage alongside her husband, her daughter, Biden and former Second Lady Jill Biden.

“If you feel tired of the noise and the nonsense in our politics and if you are tired of the extremes, you have a home with me,” Klobuchar said. “And I think you know you have a home with Joe Biden.”