After skipping Selma, not a wise move. "Bernie Cancels Mississippi Rally, Shifting Focus to Michigan

[Skya Rhen]

Link to tweet

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Senator Bernie Sanders has canceled a planned rally in Jackson, Miss., and will instead travel to Michigan on Friday, a striking indication that his presidential campaign is shifting its focus to the Midwest and largely ceding another Southern state to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., according to people familiar with the plans.
After holding a rally in Phoenix on Thursday night, Mr. Sanders had been scheduled to travel to Jackson on Friday for a rally focused on racial justice.

The change in plans suggests that Mr. Sanders will not challenge Mr. Biden for the support of black voters in the South — a vital base in the Democratic Party — and is instead going all-in on the Midwest as he tries to compete with Mr. Biden for working-class voters there. Black voters in the South have overwhelmingly backed Mr. Biden to this point, and on Super Tuesday their support lifted him in states like Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia.

<Snip>

Mr. Sanders indicated he planned to focus on the Midwest during a hurried news conference with reporters on Wednesday. Asked if he had to win next Tuesday in Michigan — a primary he won in 2016 — Mr. Sanders suggested he did.
“We are going in there with a full expectation and the hope that we will win,” he said. “Michigan is obviously an enormously important state. It’s a state I feel very comfortable in.”

He also underscored the importance of other Midwestern states, including Wisconsin and Indiana. President Trump won both of those and Michigan in the 2016 general election; Barack Obama won all three in 2008.

[Xipe Totec]

1. Just a whiter shade of pale

[wishstar]

2. Wise move, since Mississippi is lost cause and Florida looks bad too for him

Michigan is not looking nearly so good for him this time around.

[Sloumeau]

3. Will abandoning the Black Americans in Mississipi look good...

to the Black Americans in Detroit? I am not so sure about this.

[Skya Rhen]

8. Add Illinois, Florida and New York that all have around the same percentage of AAs as Michigan...

[NurseJackie]

4. He knows it's a lost cause. He's probably not trying to win... he just doesn't want to LOSE badly...

He knows it's a lost cause. He's probably not trying to win... he just doesn't want to LOSE badly, I imagine. So if that's the case, he should just go ahead and accept reality and withdraw now... and ENDORSE BIDEN and get on board the bandwagon.

[Happy Hoosier]

5. We cannot win in November without an engaged black electorate.

[Moderateguy]

6. I am guessing this is the new argument for why he should be the nominee

He wants to rack up wins in Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin to argue swing-state appeal to the super-delegates to back him

[frazzled]

7. You don't beat a dead horse

He was going to lose big there anyway, if SC and AL were any indicators. You don't put valuable campaign resources and time into something you know won't pay dividends.

This is why when canvassing or phone banking, you are told never to waste time on voters who have chosen another candidate, expressed negative opinions of your candidate, or most of all, are from another party. That's what voter IDing efforts are used to cull out: information about each voter as to whether they are a supporter, a leaner, or for someone else. Then you drop all the last category, strengthen the first, and try to capture the second.