‘They are so nervous:’ Congressional Democrats stay out of unsettled 2020 primary

Three swing-state House members backed Joe Biden’s presidential campaign over the weekend, lifting his number of congressional endorsements to 31, more than double the amount of any 2020 rival. But with just four weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, most of their Democratic colleagues are choosing to stay on the sidelines. By comparison, Hillary Clinton had secured 181 congressional endorsements by the first week of January 2016, an overwhelming show of force that solidified her as the party’s frontrunner. Biden, who leads national polls of the 2020 primary race, isn’t even at a fifth of that total. It’s a reflection of the extremely cautionary approach elected officials are taking in a still-unsettled campaign. Kamala Harris had earned 17 congressional endorsements before ending her White House bid in December, including 11 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Rep. Brenda Lawrence of Michigan, who backed Harris in August, said most of her CBC colleagues have been back at the drawing board, evaluating the candidates’ messages to African-American voters. She declined to say which candidates she had heard from most aggressively, but noted Buttigieg — who has struggled to build support among black voters — wasn’t among them.