Does Biden still have a chance? Welcome to the Maclean's Politics Insider: America 2020, launched for readers who crave U.S. political news during primary season. If you want to receive this new newsletter, take no action, it will arrive in your inbox every weekday at noon. If you'd rather not receive it, please unsubscribe here. Another double endorsement: First the New York Times declined to pick just one candidate to endorse (instead jointly endorsing Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar), and it seems to be spreading: in advance of the Nevada caucuses on Tuesday, Las Vegas Weekly made what the editors called "a rare double endorsement" of Amy Klobuchar and Joe Biden, arguing that the one priority above all else is for the Democrats to find a candidate who can beat Donald Trump in November, and that these two Senators are the most electable. The endorsement also had kind words for all the other candidates on the ballot except Bernie Sanders , calling him "the only clear non-starter," comparing him to Trump and saying his nomination "simply guarantees a Trump second term." Biden's Southern firewall might still exist: If Joe Biden still has a shot despite his poor performance in the first two primaries, it will be because his popularity with older Southern Democrats — particularly moderate or conservative African-Americans with fond memories of Barack Obama's presidency — holds up. A poll of Georgia voters conducted by an Atlanta television station suggests that this might be possible: Biden has led the poll for the last six months, and he still has a big lead today, even with Michael Bloomberg added to the poll. Bernie Sanders leads the poll in voters aged 18 to 39, so the situation seems to be the same as it has been for a while — young people like Sanders, old people like Biden, and a lot of people are undecided. But Sanders might take the Lone Star state: In a poll of Texas voters conducted by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune, Sanders has doubled his support since the last poll in October, and is now in the lead, though Biden is close behind and Elizabeth Warren is still drawing support. The poll also shows Trump beating most of the candidates in hypothetical match-ups, but all by very narrow margins. Texas is a Republican state where Trump performed worse in 2016 than Mitt Romney did in 2012, and it's seen as one of the red states with the most potential to eventually turn blue — but it's too early to say if "eventually" means November 2020. The perks of working for Bloomberg: The media never runs out of stories about how much money the Michael Bloomberg campaign is spending, much as Bloomberg never runs out of money. As he prepares to make his official entrance into the Democratic nomination race on Super Tuesday, the former Republican Mayor is "buying the ground war," hiring entry-level organizers for tens of thousands more than other campaigns can afford to pay, providing a seemingly unlimited budget for advertising and merchandising, and, for employees in his main New York City office: Three meals daily and unlimited snacks in a central cafe that acts as a hub of the office. In late December alone, according to the campaign’s first filing with the Federal Election Commission, it paid more than $16,000 to a sushi restaurant in Manhattan as well as roughly $200,000 to FLIK Hospitality, a catering company. One employee compares the experience to working at a tech company. But then again, we know what happens to a lot of tech startups. Pay $580,000, meet Trump: Candidates who aren't self-funding, like Donald Trump, need to raise money the traditional American way: with a Saturday night fundraising banquet where the admission fee is $580,600 (U.S. dollars). But that price tag covers admission for a couple, so really, it only costs $290,300 per person, which is a bargain. The dinner, hosted at the Palm Beach home of billionaire and longtime Republican donor Nelson Peltz, is expected to bring about 30 people who really, really, really want their picture taken with the president. —Jaime Weinman | 
