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Biden Backed by House Members With Service Ties: Campaign Update

A trio of House Democrats with military backgrounds, all elected since Donald Trump took office, endorsed Joe Biden. 

Biden Backed by House Members With Service Ties: Campaign Update
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks during the Iowa Democratic Party Liberty & Justice Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. (Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- A trio of House Democrats with military backgrounds, all elected since Donald Trump took office, endorsed Joe Biden on Sunday as he seeks to stress his national security credentials and his appeal in swing districts.

Representatives Conor Lamb and Chrissy Houlahan, both from Pennsylvania, and Elaine Luria of Virginia are backing the former vice president. Trump won Lamb and Luria’s districts in 2016, and Houlahan flipped her seat when she was elected in 2018.

Campaigning Iowa, Biden is stressing that he would help congressional and state candidates more than the other Whjite House contenders. In 2018, he was a more popular surrogate than any of the party’s other candidates and was deployed to many purple states and swing districts.

“Joe Biden is ‘battle-tested’ on the world stage, in Congress, and in the White House,” Luria said in a statement. “He will defeat Donald Trump and win in tough districts like mine. When he walks into the Oval Office, he will immediately get to work, rebuild the middle class and restore our standing on the world stage”

Lamb said he has “seen firsthand that Joe Biden knows the people of western Pennsylvania and shares our values.” He added that “Joe Biden respects our people, he knows what they are going through, and he knows what it means to keep your word.”

Bloomberg Vows Funding for Small Businesses (3:10 p.m.)

U.S. cities and towns would get funding to establish or strengthen entrepreneurship centers that support small businesses as part of initiatives that Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg released Sunday while campaigning in California.

The campaign said it couldn’t provide an estimate of how much money would be made available because details are still being determined as it formulates tax and related policy initiatives. It’s one in a series of proposals Bloomberg has released without details on cost or funding.

Besides the funding for local Business Solution Centers for entrepreneurs, Bloomberg’s initiatives include expanding other federal programs in the U.S. Small Business Administration and encouraging local “one-stop shops” to certify women, minority and veteran-owned businesses to bid for government contracts.

Bloomberg plans multiple stops Sunday and Monday in California, a linchpin of his strategy to skip the nominating contests in February to focus on delegate-rich states, such as California, that vote March 3 on so-called Super Tuesday and later in March and April.

Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. -- Mark Niquette

Iowa Poll Shows Sanders, Biden, Buttigieg Tied (11.58 a.m.)

A new CBS News poll shows a three-way tie among Democrats in Iowa, with Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg each at 23% support. Elizabeth Warren at 16% and Amy Klobuchar at 7% rounded out the top five, a month before Iowa voters attend the caucuses.

In New Hampshire, the second state to hold a 2020 nominating contest, Sanders was in the lead at 27% to Biden’s 25%, with Warren at 18% and Buttigieg at 13%.

The jump in support over the holidays put the Vermont senator in his strongest position yet in the two early-voting states. Warren has slipped in New Hampshire since November as progressive voters there appear to switch their allegiance to Sanders.

Biden Backed by House Members With Service Ties: Campaign Update

Biden, the former vice president, continued to poll highly as the “safe” choice among Iowa Democrats and scored highest there and in New Hampshire when asked if he would “probably win” in a general election against President Donald Trump. Still, only 38% of Democrats in Iowa and 36% in New Hampshire said Biden would probably beat Trump.

The polls were conducted for CBS by YouGov Dec. 27-Jan. 3, and included 2,000 registered voters in Iowa and 1,000 in New Hampshire. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.8 percentage points in Iowa and 5.3 points in New Hampshire. -- Ros Krasny

COMING UP:

Democratic candidates are fanning out across early-voting states this weekend, notably Iowa and New Hampshire.

Five Democrats -- Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders, Warren and 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 Ros Krasny and Mark Niquette.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Washington at jepstein32@bloomberg.net

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

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.