“As the Democratic primary battle turns to states with more racial diversity than the first two nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, newly released data from the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that Sen. Bernie Sanders now enjoys similar levels of support among black Democratic primary voters as Joe Biden does, while all of their other rivals — with the exception of former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg — have failed to gain any meaningful traction with this crucial voting bloc.”

“According to the newly released data, Biden has the support of 31% of black Democratic primary voters, while Sanders captures the backing of 29%.”

New York Times: “Several people close to the Bloomberg campaign, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private concerns, said that the former New York mayor’s advisers had quietly acknowledged that Mr. Bloomberg would have to take a wholly different approach to the next debate, in South Carolina on Tuesday night.”

“Mr. Bloomberg himself signaled plans to ratchet up attacks on the party’s nominal front-runner, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, trying to shift focus to a progressive foil.”

“Bernie Sanders hasn’t won the Democratic primary — but down-ballot Republicans are having a field day acting like he has,” Politico reports.

“Republicans up and down the ballot are already casting their Democratic rivals as socialist puppets who would remake the economy in Sanders’ collectivist vision. The play is straightforward: President Trump has repelled college-educated suburban voters since he took office; Republicans want to win them back by arguing the alternative is worse.”

The Guardian: “In the first six weeks of 2020, more than 1.6 billion of the 2.4 billion presidential campaign ads shown to US Facebook users were from the Bloomberg campaign. Since launching his campaign in mid-November, the former mayor of New York City has spent nearly $45m on Facebook ads – more than all his opponents combined.”

“And Bloomberg’s spending doesn’t just dwarf that of other Democrats; Donald Trump’s giant re-election effort on Facebook looks paltry in comparison.”

“Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren each started the month scraping perilously close to the bottom of their campaign bank accounts, posing an existential threat to their candidacies as the Democratic primary goes national,” Politico reports.

“They’re up against well-funded machines threatening to dominate the Democratic race: Bernie Sanders, whose recent rise in the polls has come during a major spending streak fueled by his online donors, and billionaire Mike Bloomberg, whose personal fortune has vaulted him into the middle of the campaign to take on President Trump.”

“While Sanders started February with nearly $17 million in the bank, according to campaign finance disclosures filed Thursday night, his next closest rival (non-billionaire class) was Biden, at $7.1 million. Warren was closest to the red, with just $2.3 million left in her account, while Buttigieg ($6.6 million) and Klobuchar ($2.9 million) were in between.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren drafted a document that rival Michael Bloomberg can sign to release his former employees from their nondisclosure agreements, Politico reports.

Said Warren at a CNN town hall: “I used to teach contract law. And I thought I would make this easy. I wrote up a release and covenant not to sue. And all that Mayor Bloomberg has to do is download it. I’ll text it. Sign it. And then the women, or men, will be free to speak and tell their own stories.”

A new Emerson poll in Nevada finds Bernie Sanders leading the Democratic presidential race with 30%, followed by Pete Buttigieg at 17%, Joe Biden at 16%, Elizabeth Warren at 12%, Amy Klobuchar at 11% and Tom Steyer at 10%.

Washington Post: “The dawning realization for many in the party is that what Democrats had envisioned as a jubilant national convention in Milwaukee, ground zero in a critical general-election battleground, has the potential to turn into a pitched battle among multiple candidates and their supporters, each representing dueling ideological wings of the party and convinced that the other side would lose to Trump.”

“Top campaigns have not only staffed up with delegate experts to guide them through the intricacies of the primaries, but they also have built legal teams preparing to challenge any results that don’t go their way, according to interviews with 16 top party officials and strategists.”

“And in preparation for a contested convention, some campaigns have started to reach out to superdelegates, in an attempt to secure support for a second ballot when they would come into play.”

Former Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said that Sen. Bernie Sanders or any presidential candidate should not get the Democratic nomination if they end the primary process in first place but shy of the requisite majority of delegates, the Washington Post reports.

“Reid dismissed suggestions from Sanders and his supporters that he should become the nominee if he finishes with a plurality lead ahead of the still large pack of candidates, but short of the 1,991 delegates needed to secure the nomination outright. Reid even suggested that a group of moderate candidates, trailing Sanders overall, could assemble a coalition ahead of the Democratic convention in July in Milwaukee to hand the nomination to someone else.”

“Mike Bloomberg is privately lobbying Democratic Party officials and donors allied with his moderate opponents to flip their allegiance to him — and block Bernie Sanders — in the event of a brokered national convention,” Politico reports.

“The effort, largely executed by Bloomberg’s senior state-level advisers in recent weeks, attempts to prime Bloomberg for a second-ballot contest at the Democratic National Convention in July by poaching supporters of Joe Biden and other moderate Democrats, according to two Democratic strategists familiar with the talks and unaffiliated with Bloomberg.”

A new Winthrop poll in South Carolina finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic primary race with 24%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 19%, Tom Steyer at 15%, Pete Buttigieg at 7%, Elizabeth Warren at 6% and Amy Klobuchar at 4%.

Said pollster Scott Huffmon: “Flames seem to be licking through the cracks in Biden’s firewall. His support has dropped by double digits since the late September… Bernie Sanders, now second behind Biden, has more than doubled his support, both overall and among African American voters. With roughly one-fifth of voters remaining undecided, election day could hold some surprises.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that Sen. Bernie Sanders has not done enough to disclose his medical history after his recent heart attack, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Warren: “He had made a promise to release all his medical records, and I thought that was what he was going to do.”

Asked if she felt like he had not done that, Ms. Warren said: “He just hasn’t. I don’t think that’s a question of opinion. Those aren’t medical records.”

New York Times: “While Ms. Warren’s opening lines had been carefully rehearsed, the most searing exchange of the night was improvised, according to her aides. Ms. Warren pressed Mr. Bloomberg about the nondisclosure agreements that former female employees at his companies had signed, so voters could know ‘what’s lurking out there,’ flustering the former mayor into perhaps his worst moments onstage.”

“Michael Bloomberg’s contribution to his presidential run neared the half-billion-dollar mark by the start of this month, as he plowed gargantuan sums into advertising and hired hundreds of staffers,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The billionaire, who is self-funding his campaign, had contributed $463.8 million to his campaign as of the end of last month, a new Federal Election Commission filing shows.”