The Latest: Biden meets with black newspaper publishers

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The Latest on the 2020 Democratic primary contest (all times local):

11:45 a.m.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is meeting privately Tuesday with leading black newspaper publishers as he tries to shore up African American support ahead of the South Carolina primary on Saturday.

Biden is meeting with about a half dozen leaders of of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. The organization includes about 200 black-owned newspapers around the country, with a combined audience the group estimates at 20 million.

The former vice president is depending heavily on black voters as he looks for his first win of the primary season and attempts to blunt Bernie Sanders’ momentum after leading voting in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

Biden was expected in the meeting to discuss the affordable housing plan he announced Monday. He also may bring up his proposals for health care, which he has been emphasizing this week with heavily black audiences.

His proposals include a public option government insurance plan that would cover Americans who would have been covered by Medicaid expansion under the 2010 health care law but who live in states whose Republican governors refused to expand Medicaid.

South Carolina is among those states, as are several states that vote March 3 on Super Tuesday.

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12:50 a.m.

The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, is endorsing Democrat Pete Buttigieg for president.

The editors of the paper write in an editorial posted late Monday that the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is “the energetic, disciplined candidate who can offer voters a powerful yet pragmatic vision.”

The piece notes Democrats’ past success with younger outsiders such as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. At 38, Buttigieg is younger than any of them.

Buttigieg has struggled to attract support from African Americans, but the editors credit him for accepting “responsibility to build trust with African American voters” and say he has “made important strides by releasing ambitious proposals.”

The piece asks, “Is his outreach genuine, and is it being undertaken in good faith?” And it answers, “We believe that it is.”

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The Buttigieg endorsement story at 12:50 a.m. has been corrected to delete reference to The State being the largest newspaper in South Carolina. The Post and Courier of Charleston has a larger total circulation.