Hiya, from the socially distanced land of our cozy (learn: tiny) New York flats!
Electoral politics as we all know them are on pause in the mean time, and the coronavirus has upended the Democratic major race in some ways. Right here’s a take a look at precisely how, and notes on different belongings you might need missed within the 2020 race this week.
Methods to marketing campaign throughout the coronavirus outbreak
As President Trump has appeared earlier than the nation for each day briefings and labeled himself a “wartime president,” former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. — the candidate who appears all however sure to face Mr. Trump within the normal election — has confronted questions on-line and even at digital fund-raisers about why he has stored a comparatively low profile.
The outbreak has, in fact, pressured Mr. Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont off the bodily marketing campaign path. And the weird scenario has left Mr. Biden making an attempt to determine easy methods to place himself as a distinguished voice on the disaster.
“I wish to be in each day or a minimum of, you already know, important contact with the American folks and talk what I might be doing, what I feel we ought to be doing and the way we ought to be doing it,” Mr. Biden stated on Sunday.
Reshaping the well being care debate
Should you’ve watched any of the Democratic debates or attended any marketing campaign occasions, you already know that well being care has lengthy been a central subject within the 2020 presidential race. Including the coronavirus pandemic to the equation has made the stakes even higher and made the difference between Democratic and Republican visions of what the system should look like even more stark.
Advancing “Medicare for all” has, for two cycles now, been Mr. Sanders’s central policy priority, and our colleague Sydney Ember reports that he “believes he can meld this moment of national crisis with the progressive policy agenda that has been his life’s work.”
In related news:
Will there be another debate?
Mr. Sanders would like to debate Mr. Biden again if, in fact, a debate is held in April as originally planned.
“Senator Sanders is still running for president,” Mike Casca, one of his top campaign officials, said on Tuesday. “If there is a debate in April, he plans to be there.”
Mr. Biden, not so much.
“I haven’t thought about any more debates,” he said a day later. “I think we’ve had enough debates. I think we should get on with this.”
The Democratic National Committee said previously that there would be a debate in April, but one has not been scheduled and the committee has not announced a media partner or a site host.
How about another Super Tuesday?
Thanks to multiple postponements connected to public health concerns, as many as 10 states and the District of Columbia may now hold primaries on June 2, making it suddenly quite important to the Democratic race.
And finally …
For us, just as for so many of you, the coronavirus outbreak has been and will continue to be front of mind when it comes to news. Our politics team will continue to vigorously cover the 2020 race and all of the ways it is being affected by the pandemic, and we urge you to keep reading. But for now, this weekly roundup will go on hiatus. We hope we can rejoin you when things get a little bit more back to normal.