CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson: Buttigieg Does Well With ‘Older Voters Who See Him as a Nice Grandson’

A CNN power panel Monday night gave former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg advice while also ripping the youngest candidate in the field of Democratic 2020 hopefuls over his “sort of a nice grandson” appeal.

Another pundit even suggested that with a strong performance in the Iowa Caucus tonight, Buttigieg could see an expanded coalition of supporters in South Carolina in the days to follow.

David Axelrod began the segment by outlining that for Buttigieg to make claims going into November, he will need a strong performance against former Vice President Joe Biden in the caucuses Monday night.

“Both he and Elizabeth Warren invested deeply in this state. And they’re sort of locked in races within the race. One set for primacy among Progressives. I think it’s very important for Buttigieg to finish ahead of Biden if he’s going to make some claim to move forward as a credible candidate here, so there’s a lot on the — a lot at stake here,” Axelrod stated.

Gloria Borger then joined in with commentary adding, “Buttigieg is really the only candidate who’s come out and said and been so direct about it, I have to win, I need to — not win, but I have to do well here or forget about it. And if you look at, you know, the entrance poll results, the early ones David and I have been kind of poring over them, he seems to be someone who has a broad appeal to older voters and younger voters…”

Nia-Malika Henderson then suggested that Buttigieg with a win tonight could find himself an “expanding… coalition” in a key swing state of South Carolina with a strong performance.

Henderson added, “Can this be kind of a launching point for him? I mean, everybody talks about Obama in 2008. And he did well in South Carolina subsequently. Buttigieg, obviously, doing really poorly right now in South Carolina. But, listen, he comes out stronger today, you might see some movement in terms of him expanding his coalition because it has largely been all white. He hasn’t typically done well with any young voters of any race really. It’s really sort of older — older voters who see him as sort of a nice grandson or something like that.”

Watch above, via CNN.

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