Former Vice President Joe Biden Campaigns In Dallas In Front Of Students And Later Donors
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Former Vice President and Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden brought his campaign to Dallas Wednesday.
In a low-key event held at the educational non-profit organization Spark, Biden addressed 150 people, including about 100 students, many of whom are part of the Dallas Mayor's Internship Fellows Program.
Biden told the youngsters, "I didn't start off thinking I'd run for public office."
He didn't talk about his campaign for President or his policies.
Instead, Biden and Mayor Mike Rawlings, who has endorsed him, sought to encourage them as they prepare to intern at companies this summer.
Biden said, "I promise what's going to happen is you're going to say I can do that, I can do that."
Biden left without speaking to reporters, who shouted questions.
Earlier, he headlined a fundraiser at a Highland Park home.
A press pool report said Biden told about 200 donors that President Trump has divided the country, and that he wants to reunite it. "We have to bring everybody back in."
He also said, "We have to restore the soul of America."
At least one man who attended the fundraiser, Nate Levine, said he's backing Biden. "He's got a lot of experience. He's got a lot of credibility, honest, been there before, so I'm going with him."
During the fundraiser, the former Vice President downplayed his lead in the polls, calling it a "marathon."
The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Biden far ahead of everyone else with nearly 35%.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, in second place is nearly 20 points behind with more than 16%.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has 10%.
California Senator Kamala Harris has 7%, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg has 6% and former El Paso Congressman has 4%.
Former San Antonio Mayor and HUD Secretary Julián Castro has remained at 1%.
Some donors we spoke with are still considering who they'll support and what their deciding factor will be.
Domingo Garcia, National President of LULAC said, "It's still early, we haven't had Iowa yet. At this point four years ago, Jeb Bush was way ahead of everybody else, and Jeb Bush is not the President of the United States."
Mark Phariss, a former candidate for State Senate in Collin and Dallas Counties said his number one consideration is electability. "It has to be someone I believe will actually win in November, a year from now."
Since January, Biden and seven other Democratic Presidential candidates have held public events in North Texas.
On Thursday, O'Rourke is scheduled to return to Dallas to hold a roundtable discussion on his newly introduced plan to reform the nation's immigration system.
