Former Vice President Joe Biden is heading to South Carolina tonight, skipping an election night party in New Hampshire.
Biden will attend a “launch party” in Columbia, South Carolina, at 8 p.m. and address supporters in New Hampshire via livestream. Multiple people familiar with his plans told CBS News earlier Tuesday that Biden intends to continue his presidential campaign regardless of how he performs tonight.
“I am looking forward to traveling to South Carolina this evening and Nevada later this week to carry our campaign forward and hear from the diverse voters whose voices must be heard in this process to select the Democratic nominee who will unite this country to defeat Donald Trump,” a statement from his campaign said.
Asked if South Carolina is do-or-die for his presidential prospects, Biden told CBS News, “No, I don’t think so. Look, the rest of the nation is out there.”
Biden has sunk in Granite State polls to as low as fifth place by some measures and is beginning to slide in national surveys amid the rise of Sanders and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The decline comes amid quarterly fundraising reports that showed he began the year with just $9 million in his campaign coffers.
A top Biden confidant said earlier that the campaign “will move on to Nevada,” saying the state is “more demonstrative demographically of this country in the 21st Century and hope that he wins.”
But, the confidant added, “he is being outspent there as well.”
Biden is scheduled to be off the campaign trail on Wednesday in Delaware before spending Thursday in New York for fundraising events and an appearance on “The View” with his wife, Jill. He is scheduled to hold campaign events Friday and Saturday in Nevada.
Biden has touted his strength in South Carolina thanks to strong support from black voters, but recent polls show Sanders and businessman Tom Steyer beginning to cut into these advantages. — Ed O’Keefe and Bo Erickson
