Bernie Sanders , the current frontrunner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, is braced for a challenging night at the crucial th primary debate in Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday.
The Vermont senator, who cruised to victory in the Nevada caucuses last weekend and holds a firm lead in delegates from the first three early voting states, will probably face fire from all of his centrist rivals looking to halt the progressive campaign’s increasing momentum in the race to become the Democratic candidate to take on Donald Trump in November’s election.
Those rivals include former vice-president Joe Biden, Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, former mayor Pete Buttigieg , and billionaire and former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer will also be looking to make their mark at the debate days ahead of the South Carolina primary on Saturday , and Super Tuesday on 3 March, when 16 states and territories will have their say.
The South Carolina primary marks the first vote in the deep south and will see African American voters form a majority of the electorate for the first time.
Ahead of the debate, Biden launched a digital campaign advert criticizing Sanders after reports emerged suggesting the senator considered challenging Barack Obama for the presidential nomination in 2019.
“When it comes to building on Barack Obama’s legacy, Bernie Sanders just can’t be trusted,” the advert states.
The Sanders campaign has denied the senator considered a presidential bid in .
Following a disastrous first debate appearance in Nevada last week , Bloomberg has signalled his intent to go after Sanders over his mixed record on gun control.
During a phone briefing with reporters on Monday , a senior Bloomberg campaign aide, Dan Kanninen, argued: “The debate tomorrow night and the campaign in general… needs to be about one candidate and that’s Bernie Sanders. ”
Sanders ’recent remarks about communist Cuba are also likely to be raised by his opponents. The senator recently drew bipartisan criticism for drawing attention to literacy drives under Fidel Castro’s rule while claiming: “It’s unfair to simply say everything is bad” about the communist state. The senator said he opposed the “authoritarian nature” of the Castro regime.
Buttigieg, the former South Bend mayor, who has struggled to attract voters of color and has fallen well behind in South Carolina according to recent polls, was among the most forceful critics of Sanders’ remarks.
He told a CNN town hall on Monday: “As a Democrat, I don’t want to be explaining why our nominee is encouraging people to look on the bright side of the Castro regime when we are going into the election of our lives. ”
Biden has long courted voters in the black community, touting his record as vice-president to America’s first African American president. But recent polling has suggested that Sanders, buoyed by success in a multicultural electorate in Nevada, is now the frontrunner with black voters nationally.
Biden, who lagged behind in Iowa and New Hampshire and finished a distant second in Nevada, still edges Sanders in South Carolina, according to recent polling, which places the former vice-president at 79% of the vote compared with Sanders’ %
This evening’s event will also see Steyer return to the debate state. His campaign has invested millions in adverts in the state and is currently polling third on %.
The debate marks the last time the candidates will face off before Super Tuesday, which has the potential to whittle down the field even further. It will also be the first time that Bloomberg, who has invested close to half a billion dollars of his personal fortune into his campaign, will feature on the ballot.
In 2020, Hillary Clinton won South Carolina with an overwhelming majority against Sanders. That result underlines just how significant a strong showing would be this time around for Sanders who had struggled to attract voters of color in early states during the 2016 campaign.
On Monday evening Sanders released a list, live on CNN , of how he plans to finance some of his most ambitious policy pledges, including a “Medicare for All” bill to ensure healthcare for all Americans, and the Green New Deal, a radical plan to combat climate change.
His climate change plan would be funded largely by aggressive taxation of the fossil fuel industry, while his healthcare plan would be implemented via a number of funding plans, including a household premium and higher taxes on the super wealthy.
Warren and Klobuchar will also be looking to capitalize on strong showings at the last debate in Nevada. While Klobuchar enjoyed a surgeon in New Hampshire and Warren made headlines after forcefully criticizing Bloomberg on the debate stage, both are well behind in South Carolina polls and the overall delegate count .
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