“People are lying now about their ability to win, what they’re actually in the race for. If people keep lying for the next nine days, we’re going to end up in a position where Sanders is probably going to be the nominee'
The view from the rest of the field. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images The chatter started up again, stronger than ever, before caucus sites even opened across Nevada on Saturday. First it was in the form of whispers among campaign strategists and donors, and as the week wore on it became outright pleas in certain corners of cable news and Twitter. For Democrats desperate to nominate anyone other than Bernie Sanders, the time had come for some serious candidates to start dropping out.
To start, none of the candidates want to get out before any of their peers if they can still conceive of some sliver of a path to victory. No one apart from Sanders has an especially convincing case to make about what his or her victory would look like — and each camp acknowledges that the party isn’t split into clear pro- and anti-Sanders lanes like many pundits imagine.
Third Way, for one, has been sending memos to early state Democrats urging them to vote against Sanders. On Saturday, they sent another to Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Warren, urging them to go after Sanders during Tuesday’s debate. But this, of course, still risks splitting the non-Sanders vote. “Sure, we’re worried about that!,” Bennett admitted, but “there isn’t an obvious person to rally behind” — especially after Bloomberg’s debate fiasco.
No candidate is publicly admitting that they’re hoping for a muddle — each still professes to see a path to victory. But some candidate’s aides are still wondering, under their breath, whether they should be actively preparing to compete on the second ballot at the convention in Milwaukee. A second ballot could occur if Sanders’s final delegate total too small to carry him to the nomination on the first ballot.
If any one candidate is facing the pressure more than the others, though, it’s Steyer. The California billionaire has yet to win a delegate, but he’s polling in third in South Carolina on the back of his massive investments there. Steyer’s critics argue that he has no shot at winning the nomination, and that his double-digit support in the state must be keeping Biden’s down.
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