Former Vice President Joe Biden's endorsements are still piling up, and that may be a good sign for his race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, according to a CNN analysis.
To date, Biden has 32 endorsements from either a governor or a sitting member of Congress, while no other Democrats have more than 13, reports CNN senior writer and analyst Harry Enten in a column concerning Biden's numbers Wednesday.
Enten noted that usually, candidates who lead in endorsements by this point of the election do well in the primary and with Biden, it "paints the picture of a front-runner who may not be strong, though certainly is not weak."
He went on to note that since 1980, there have been 14 primaries that did not include an incumbent running in a given party's primary, and with few exceptions, the candidate who was ahead in the endorsement numbers at this point of a primary went on to become the nominee.
The only candidates who did not, he said, were Democrat Dick Gephardt, 1988; Democrat Howard Dean, 2004; Democrat Hillary Clinton; 2008; Republican Jeb Bush, 2016.
Biden, however, is leading the polls as well. Gephardt and Bush were not leading the national polls at this point in the primary.
"When candidates are leading in endorsements and the polls, they have won 7 out of 9 times (78%)," said Enten. "When they lead in just endorsements and not the polling, they're 3 out of 5 (60%)."
Meanwhile, Bob Dole in 1996, George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000 and Clinton, again, in 2006, all had near or above 50% in possible endorsements.
Biden, however, now has just 11% of the endorsements but is still more than 7 points ahead of his nearest competition for endorsements, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, with less than 4%.
However, Biden's numbers at this point are close to Ronald Reagan in 1980 (13%), Walter Mondale in 1984 (13%), John McCain in 2008 (15%) and Mitt Romney in 2012 (14%).
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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