Michael Bloomberg's greatest contribution to the Democratic primary so far may have been to relaunch Senator Elizabeth Warren's career. The candidate was getting blurred and was losing support in the primary with her pragmatic progressive speech. Last Wednesday night, in one of the most forceful performances remembered in a primary debate, he put the New York mogul on the ropes, who basically bought his place in the race with hundreds of millions in television commercials. That debate has become the support stone on which Warren is trying to rebuild his campaign.
This week, the primaries have moved to Nevada, where the Democratic caucuses are held this Saturday. Until Wednesday, Nevada's political history was Bloomberg's rise in the polls. From Wednesday, at about 20.45 local, the story is how Warren beat the tycoon, who left him speechless on television after accusing him of misogynist and arrogant in the Me Too era. Warren cornered Bloomberg by asking if he gave permission to the women who had accused him of harassment to break the confidentiality agreements with which he had silenced the criticism. Bloomberg, a 78-year-old man with 60,000 million dollars and perhaps little used to being confronted with him, gave a very bad image. Bloomberg did not react until Friday, when he announced that he was willing to cancel the agreements.
The debate was seen by almost 20 million viewers. It is the most seen in the history of some Democratic primary. And not only has it marked a before and after for Bloomberg, also for Warren. His campaign had been languishing in slow motion since the voting began. In Iowa it was third with 18% of the votes. But perhaps the most damaging for the Warren campaign was the disappointing fourth place in the New Hampshire primary. The senator has made her political career in neighboring Massachusetts. In the suburbs of Boston. That's where campaigns measure the pull between the voter who looks like her. He got 9.2% of the votes. Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar were ahead of her.
Warren perhaps did not expect to reach Nevada in the lead, but neither did he arrive with such a hard blow to his credibility as a candidate. The polls give him the third position in intention to vote this Saturday, behind Sanders and Biden. In this context, the feeling that Nevada is your last chance to present yourself in the larger states as a viable candidate is inevitable. The fact that he changed his position this week on accepting money from so-called super PACs, groups of anonymous donors who can collect unlimitedly, contributes to that feeling. She was against. No longer.
If something seems clear it is that the debate is going to turn itself into a campaign message. The next morning, Thursday, Warren opened the day with a talk to groups of volunteers who are knocking on doors to seek support in East Las Vegas. "Last night was a lot of fun," he said to enthusiastic supporters. "I'm really tired of billionaires, no matter the game, they believe that the rules do not go with them."
After the talk, teams of volunteers went outside to knock on doors to seek votes in the caucuses in the last two days. But it's not two more days. It's post-Bloomberg days. Gwenn Craig, 68, was one of those volunteers. He has come from San Francisco to help all week. "The debate has given us a lot of energy," Craig said before going out to knock on doors. “We are meeting undecided people who tell us that they want a fighter, someone who gets into the fight. We need someone to win Trump but the most important thing is to be a fighter. When we saw the debate last night (Wednesday) we thought that I wish all those people had seen it, because there was a fighter. ”
That is the change that has occurred in the Warren campaign since Wednesday. I am the one in the debate, it seems, I am the one who has shown that he knows how to put in his place an arrogant billionaire from New York. Television allowed him to put on video everything that was once theoretical.
This Friday night, in the last act before the caucus of this Saturday, the ex-candidate Julian Castro who has now joined the Warren campaign used the debate as soon as he left. "It was a spectacular debate," Castro said. “Today, Bloomberg has announced that it releases three women from the confidentiality agreement. Elizabeth is already getting things! ” Before Castro, a local politician, county commissioner Justin Jones, had come out on stage who said he had decided on Wednesday, when he saw the debate, to give his public support to Warren.
Before the 200 people concentrated in a Las Vegas park, Warren made his usual speech about his political biography and then brought out the debate again: “When they tell you that a woman can't beat Donald Trump, I don't know other women, but Elizabeth Warren can beat him. If anyone doubts it, we have the video of the other day. I am prepared for that man. There is a 50% chance that Donald Trump does not dare to debate with me. ” A while later, the campaign published that segment on social networks.
Royce Ray, a 61-year-old veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, had been disengaged from politics for years until Trump appeared. Now he is following the Democratic campaign and is willing to vote for anyone. On Friday he went to see Warren's rally because he was "impressed" after seeing her in the debate. "He says what he has to say, without fear." In addition, he would like the candidate to be a woman. "I think Warren intimidates Trump," he said. After the meeting, he declared himself completely satisfied with what he had heard. "It was everything I wanted to hear." This Saturday, he will go to a caucus for Warren.