Biden campaign says he doesn’t have to win Iowa

Former Vice President Joe Biden doesn’t have to win the Iowa caucuses to capture the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, a senior adviser to his campaign said Tuesday.

“Do I think we have to win Iowa? No,” the senior adviser told reporters in a briefing, according to Politico.

{mosads}“We think we’re going to win,” the adviser added. “We think it’s going to be a dogfight … But we think there are several candidates in this field, there’s probably three or four, that are going to go awhile.”

The Iowa caucuses will mark the first vote of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary contest and, as such, are seen as a critical test by many campaigns because of their ability to lend candidates early momentum.

Biden’s advisers acknowledged that Iowa will play a “critical” role in the nominating contest. But they said the former vice president’s campaign is also looking past the handful of early primary and caucus states — like Iowa and New Hampshire — to Super Tuesday, when more than a dozen states will hold their nominating votes.

Advisers said they do not expect other candidates, like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), to exit the race early, instead predicting a more drawn-out primary fight.

They also conceded that other candidates may have an advantage in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary vote of the nominating contest, alluding to Sanders and Warren, whose home states border New Hampshire.

“As you all know, historically, there’s an incredible home field advantage for a Massachusetts candidate or a New Englander,” they said, according to Politico.