WE’RE GOOD

Biden Campaign Says He Doesn’t Need to Win Iowa Caucuses

The former VP is trailing in early Iowa polls but leads the pack in national polling.

Joe Biden’s campaign is downplaying Iowa as an arbiter of national voting after early polling in the state showed the former vice president slipping behind fellow frontrunners. “I think we’re the only ones who don’t have to win Iowa, honestly, because our strength is the fact that we have a broad and diverse coalition,” Biden’s campaign manager, Greg Schultz, told The Wall Street Journal. A New York Times/Siena College poll released Friday showed Elizabeth Warren at 22 percent in Iowa, Bernie Sanders at 19 percent, Pete Buttigieg at 18 percent, and Biden trailing him at 17 percent.

Nationally, Biden is leading the pack. A national Journal/NBC News poll released Sunday showed Biden with 27 percent support among Democratic primary voters across the country, followed by Warren at 23 percent and Sanders at 19 percent. The Iowa caucuses, the first contest in the presidential primary campaign, is not a surefire indicator of end results but can serve as a boost for candidates at the start of voting. Biden’s team has debuted new advertising in the state as part of a $4 million ad buy that will run through Feb. 3, the day of the caucuses.