House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) has chosen to endorse 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden, according to Politico and NBC News.
Clyburn will reportedly announce his endorsement on Wednesday, the day after the next Democratic debate and three days before South Carolina’s primary on Saturday.
During a Sunday morning interview on “Meet The Press,” the Democratic leader declined tell NBC News host Chuck Todd who he’d endorse, only that he believed Biden “could have done more to say why he would be deserving” of South Carolina’s votes during the debate last week, but that “a lot of that had to do with the other candidates.”
Biden, whose campaign has been struggling after poor performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, is expected to receive a much-needed boost in South Carolina, where he currently leads in the polls due to his popularity with black voters.
However, the NBC News/the Wall Street Journal poll released on Friday showed that 2020 frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), with 29% of support with black voters, has been gaining on Biden’s lead of 31% with the demographic. Additionally, Sanders’ decisive victory in the heavily diverse state of Nevada this weekend, particularly among Latinx voters, revealed the progressive senator’s broad appeal to non-white communities.
Clyburn told NBC on Sunday that Sanders “brings a lot to the table for people to consider,” including the potential baggage that comes with the label “democratic socialist.”
