Exclusive: If he doesn’t get SC primary victory, Buttigieg says he’ll stay in race
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg was at the Rock Hill Sports and Event Center Thursday to talk with voters ahead of the state’s Democratic primary. After the event, The Herald got an interview with the former South Bend mayor.
After he nearly tied with Sen. Bernie Sanders in Iowa, finished second in New Hampshire and third in Nevada, Buttigieg, who is in the single digits in South Carolina polls, is second behind Sanders in total delegates won.
Here is a summary of the questions he answered.
Do you see a clear path to the nomination?
Absolutely. Yes. It’s a long path. But it starts with a good showing here in South Carolina. We need to show well in the Super Tuesday states and then actually, if you look at the map, it becomes more and more favorable to us as we go deeper into March and into April.
But we need the resources to compete right now. We’re in a big fundraising push. Given that we were able to blow away expectations beginning in Iowa, I think that we can compete and ultimately win, too, because most voters are looking for an alternative to Senator Sanders. That’s what we represent.
If you don’t win South Carolina, will that affect your continuation in the presidential race?
We’ll continue to campaign and push on and ultimately win, I believe no matter what. But it is very important to us to have a good showing here in South Carolina.
Are you seeing success among black voters in the state?
We’re certainly seeing that we’ve gotten a second look from black voters after we were able to demonstrate that this really is a credible campaign with our win in Iowa and our good shows in the other states.
But I recognize that it takes often years or decades to earn that level of trust with African American voters. I don’t have decades on the scene, nor do I have billions of dollars to make up for it.
What we have is a comprehensive vision in the Frederick Douglass Plan to lift up black Americans beginning with economic empowerment. And what I have is a commitment to listen, to learn, to show up, to own where we need to do better, as Americans to do better and to empower those voices in our future administration as we have in our campaign.
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Exclusive: If he doesn’t get SC primary victory, Buttigieg says he’ll stay in race."
