8th March, 2020
With a rush of momentum, endorsements and awash with donor cash after his strong Super Tuesday, former US Vice President Joe Biden launched the biggest advertising blitz of his presidential campaign.
Biden’s campaign said on Friday it had raised about $22 million in five days.
Until recently, Biden’s campaign was struggling to raise funds. Now, as he looks ahead to Tuesday and more big contests on March 17, Biden is spending $12 million on a six-state ad buy.
The online, digital and TV ads will run in Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi – three states that vote on Tuesday – and Florida, Illinois and Ohio, three of the four states voting on March 17.
Biden and Bernie Sanders, his main rival, campaigned in the Midwest on Saturday, as the two prepare for a showdown in Michigan, Missouri and four other nominating contests next week.
Sanders, 78, who until recently was the front-runner in the party’s race to face Republican President Donald Trump in November, is now trailing in delegates and desperate to regain momentum after Biden, 77, received a rush of endorsements from party establishment figures following his strong “Super Tuesday” showing this week.
Biden called for Democratic unity against Trump at a rally in St. Louis, Missouri, shortly after Sanders attacked his record and Biden had warned against a primary “bloodbath.”
“We’re going to unite this party and unite this country,” Biden said.
Biden thanked former Democratic White House rivals who recently dropped out of the race and endorsed him, including Pete Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
Biden also unexpectedly thanked supporters of Kamala Harris, fueling speculation that the former Democratic presidential candidate may be about to endorse him. Harris, a U.S. senator from California, has been weighing such an endorsement, according to a person familiar with her thinking.
Sanders attacked Biden at a Michigan rally on Saturday, hours after Biden’s warning against a “bloodbath” in the primaries involving the U.S. senator from Vermont and self-described democratic socialist.
Speaking to a crowd in the Michigan suburb of Dearborn, Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, lambasted the former vice president for voting in support of the Iraq war and for trade deals he says cost millions of American jobs, including in Michigan and the Midwest.
“Joe Biden voted for those agreements. I wish I didn’t have to tell you what you already know. Those agreements turned out to be an absolute disaster,” Sanders said, referring to trade deals including the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
Sanders also decried Biden’s acceptance of campaign contributions from some billionaires.
“At the end of the day people understand that if you are taking lots of money from billionaires, you’re not going to be there standing up for the working class and the middle class of this country,” Sanders said.