A fundraiser for former Vice President Joe Biden in Hartford has been canceled due to concerns about the spreading coronavirus, officials said Thursday.
Biden supporters had planned the event at a private residence in the city on March 19 – coming soon after major wins by Biden in key presidential primaries in Michigan, Mississippi and Missouri.
While the private lunchtime event had been scheduled, organizers originally had also been considering if they would hold a public rallly. But Democrats noted that both Biden and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont had recently canceled major public gatherings due to widespread concerns about the coronavirus. The World Health Organization has declared it as a global pandemic as schools, nursing homes, the NCAA basketball tournaments, and the NBA season have all been impacted.
The fundraiser would have marked Biden’s second in Connecticut after more than 140 people attended a big-money fundraiser in mid-October at the Greenwich home of Gov. Ned Lamont. The event raised more than $450,000 and ranked at the time as one of the most successful fundraisers for the Biden campaign nationwide.
After Biden’s poor performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, Lamont warned that no one should count the Delaware Democrat out. Since then, Biden has had strong performances in South Carolina, then on Super Tuesday and then most recently in a key primary in the battleground state of Michigan.
