Buttigieg Ad Highlights Black Support: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Pete Buttigieg is seeking to overcome low support among black voters in South Carolina with a new ad highlighting residents of South Bend, Indiana.

The 30-second spot avoids any direct mention of race, but it features four black residents praising Buttigieg’s record in the city where he was the mayor until Jan. 1.

“He listened to our community,” says one resident.

In recent weeks, Buttigieg has stepped up efforts to win over black voters, who make up the majority of Democrats in South Carolina, meeting with African-American leaders and holding smaller events.

National polls continue to show former Vice President Joe Biden with a commanding lead among older black voters.

Gabbard Adds New Hampshire Office as Vote Nears (11:05 a.m.)

Thirty-five days before the New Hampshire primary, Representative Tulsi Gabbard opened her first campaign office in Manchester.

The office is her first in any state, and the Hawaii congresswoman chose the early primary state where she has the greatest support. Though polling at 2.3% nationally in the RealClearPolitics average, Gabbard is at 4% in New Hampshire, tied for fifth place with Senator Amy Klobuchar and entrepreneur Andrew Yang. All three still lag behind Senator Bernie Sanders, who has 22.7% in the state.

Gabbard’s spokeswoman Cullen Tiernan announced the opening in a tweet, saying that the timing of its opening was “on the night war with Iran became hot.” Gabbard, a Hawaii National Guard member who served in Iraq, has focused on non-interventionist foreign policy and getting out of wars in the Middle East. -- Emma Kinery

COMING UP:

Five Democrats -- Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Klobuchar -- have qualified for the next debate, on Jan. 14 in Iowa.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally in Milwaukee on the same night as the debate, as well as a rally in Toledo on Jan. 9.

The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses will be held Feb. 3.

(Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)

--With assistance from Emma Kinery.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Teague Beckwith in New York at rbeckwith3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, John Harney

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.