Democrats send a Super Tuesday message: Trump first, change later

It’s accurate — but not complete — to call Super Tuesday a triumph for the moderate wing of the Democratic party. Yes, voters handed establishment candidate Joe Biden victories in North Carolina, Virginia, Texas and at least six other states, while progressive candidate Bernie Sanders stumbled to apparent wins in just four. But the numbers behind the victories show that they may have been more about pragmatism than policy. Instead of crowning a movement, Democrats sent a message: Change first, then progress.

In North Carolina, voters sent that message twice. They delivered a resounding 19-point victory to Biden, and they did the same for U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham, who defeated progressive Erica Smith by a 57-35 percent margin and will now face incumbent Republican and Trump loyalist Thom Tillis. In each race, voters rejected candidates with progressive platforms — including support for the Green New Deal and Medicare for All — and chose the moderate Democrat who might appeal to more voters in November.

But Tuesday’s vote wasn’t necessarily a rejection of those progressive beliefs. In North Carolina and 11 other Super Tuesday states in which exit polls asked if voters preferred replacing private health insurance with a single government plan for everyone, more Democrats preferred the latter. That includes North Carolina, where 55 percent of Democrats supported a Medicare for All-type structure versus 41 percent who opposed it.

Those N.C. voters — as did voters in other Super Tuesday states — also said by an almost 2-to-1 margin that they preferred a return to President Barack Obama’s policies rather than policies that were more liberal than Obama’s. That seeming contradiction is a reminder that we should be careful with the progressive vs. moderate labels we place on Democrats, and that the party should be ready to accommodate voters with complex positions on issues.

One message that was far less complicated: In those same exit polls, 89 percent of North Carolina Democratic voters said they were dissatisfied or angry with President Trump. And when asked if Democrats should nominate someone who “agrees with you on issues” or “can beat Trump,” a striking 63 percent chose the latter.

That sentiment and those voters fueled the moderate Biden and Cunningham, whose platforms are more palatable to the persuadable voters in our state — including suburban voters who helped drive a blue wave in the 2018 mid-terms, not to mention the Obama wave a decade earlier. As this Editorial Board said last week, those same voters would likely be wary of the systemic changes that Sanders and downballot progressives have been proposing on health care and other issues. It’s why Democrats across the country, including in North Carolina, were troubled by the Sanders surge.

But that surge, although blunted by Super Tuesday’s results, is not dead. The Democratic primary race is essentially down to two candidates now, and the days and weeks ahead will offer voters a clearer choice between two visions. Progressives will certainly get their say, and as the last week showed us, this volatile race can certainly turn sharply and quickly. Sanders, for his part, didn’t sound like a candidate who was waving the white flag in a speech to supporters late Tuesday.

That’s not a bad thing for Democrats. The progressive energy in the party is real, and it is fueled by a fundamental belief that on issues such as health care, America needs to move toward fairness for all, regardless of what form that comes in. On Tuesday, however, voters in North Carolina and across the country expressed a different priority. Defeat the president and those who reflexively support him in Congress. Change Washington first.

This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 10:21 AM with the headline "Democrats send a Super Tuesday message: Trump first, change later."