INSTITUTE INDEX: Will presidential candidates pay attention to the South?
A field office for the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Olivia Paschal.)
Date of South Carolina's "First-in-the-South" primary: 2/29/2020
Number of other Southern states holding their primary on Super Tuesday, March 3: 6*
Of the 4,750 delegates who will select the Democratic nominee for president at the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) nominating convention in July, number up for grabs in the 13 Southern states**: 1,304
Number of candidates remaining in the Democratic presidential primary race, out of 28 who originally announced their candidacy: 11
Number of individual donations the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has received from Southern states, the most in the region, totaling $5.6 million: 170,467
Amount former Vice President Joe Biden has raised in the South, the most in the region: $9.4 million
Number of individual donations Biden has received from Southern states, the least among the four Democratic frontrunners, who also include Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts: 52,392
Number of Southern states in which Biden has campaigned to date: 6***
Biden's current percentage-point lead over second-place Sanders in South Carolina, according to FiveThirtyEight.com averages: 15.7
Amount of money that 2020 presidential campaigns and outside groups affiliated with both major parties have spent to date this cycle on campaign-related ad buys in Texas and Florida, the Southern states with the greatest number of DNC delegates: $51.1 million
Total amount of money 2020 presidential campaigns and outside groups affiliated with both major parties have spent to date this cycle on campaign-related ad buys in Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia — four of the five Southern states among the bottom 10 for voter turnout in 2016: $6.6 million
Number of field offices the billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has in the South: 55****
Number of Southern states Warren's presidential campaign has staff in: 10*****
Number of events billionaire hedge fund manager and climate activist Tom Steyer has held in South Carolina, the most among current candidates: 38
Number of events U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California held in South Carolina before dropping out of the race in December: 50
Amount Steyer has spent on advertising in black newspapers in South Carolina: over $100,000
Number of Southern states where no reliable 2020 Democratic primary polls have been conducted, making it all but impossible to predict who will emerge victorious: 4******
* Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
** Facing South counts the following states as part of the region: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
*** Information provided by the campaign. The states are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
**** Information provided by the campaign.
***** Information provided by the campaign. The states are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
****** Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia.
(Click on figure to go to source.)
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Olivia Paschal
Olivia Paschal is the archives editor with Facing South and a Ph.D candidate in history at the University of Virginia. She was a staff reporter with Facing South for two years and spearheaded Poultry and Pandemic, Facing South's year-long investigation into conditions for Southern poultry workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also led the Institute's project to digitize the Southern Exposure archive.