Hillary Clinton's poll numbers and favorability ratings may be fading, but University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato says she's still positioned to be the eventual Democratic Party nominee, even if Vice President Joe Biden decides to run, because she'll have the minority vote.
"The Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary are heavily white, and Clinton does less well with whites than she does with minorities," Sabato, who heads the university's Center for Politics, told
Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program Thursday. "There's where a Bernie Sanders or a Joe Biden could do well."
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But when you move to other primaries where the no-white vote either dominates or comprises a large percentage of primaries, Clinton will pick up, as she is at a 65 percent support level with minorities, Sabato said.
That could change, though, if President Barack Obama endorses Biden, turning "some of those nonwhite voters into Biden supporters," he said.
In addition, Clinton's campaign has learned from the 2008 campaign, when it expected to win easily and did very little preparation for the early contests.
"They have done far more organizing, far more preparation this time in all of the primaries and caucuses after the first two, Iowa and New Hampshire," said Sabato, "so she's much better prepared."
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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