Elizabeth Warren Vows To Stay In Race Through March, Despite Poor Early Performances
Elizabeth Warren is planning to stay in the Democratic primary through the end of the month, despite poor performances in the first four contests.
The Massachusetts senator has failed to come in the top three in any of the four contests that opened the primary and has just eight delegates, significantly behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with 58 and former Vice President Joe Biden with 50. Despite the slow start, a memo sent out on Sunday from Warren’s campaign stated that she plans to stay in through the end of March.
As Ruby Cramer of Buzzfeed News noted on Twitter, the memo from Warren’s team predicted that she would amass at least some delegates from all of the upcoming states, and that no candidate is currently on pace to win the majority of delegates needed to earn the nomination on a first vote at this summer’s Democratic National Convention.
If no candidate has at least 50 percent plus one delegate, the convention will go to a second round of voting in which superdelegates could select the candidate, even if it is not the person who won the most delegates.
Warren’s fundraising may be helping her to remain in the campaign. As The Hill noted, she pulled in $30 million for the month of February, with a surge coming after her stronger performance in the Nevada debate. The campaign took on $2.8 million in a single day after the debate and a total of $9.5 million from Wednesday through Friday of that week.
The donations allowed Warren’s campaign to invest more than $2.4 million in television, digital, and traditional media advertising for the upcoming Super Tuesday states, the report noted.
“We’ve already reserved media across key markets in Arizona, Illinois, and Georgia — and into Wisconsin, which finishes voting in April. We’re in this race for the long haul,” said campaign manager Roger Lau.
Warren’s fundraising still lags behind her competitors. The Sanders campaign announced that it raised $46 million on February, including $4.6 million on Saturday alone, the report noted. Biden also saw a surge in donations after his big win in the South Carolina primary, taking in $5 million in the 24 hours after his victory.
Warren will get help in other corners. After initially calling on candidates not to accept help from super PACs, Warren is now getting a boost from one. As The New York Times noted, the Persist PAC announced it would be spending $9 million in television and digital ads in support of the Massachusetts senator.
