Hot takes that winning statewide races = winning POTUS nom are wrong historically. Far more presidential candidates have lost their bid for the nom and/or the presidency when they have won all their statewide races than not: Hillary, Sanders, Mitt, McCain & Kerry are most recent.
Biden lost two previous bids resoundingly. McCain lost twice. The list of losers far outstrips the winners. There are currently SEVEN candidates who have never lost a statewide race. They can't all be the nominee. It may be a comforting narrative for some, but it's a false one.
"My candidate won all his/her statewide races so she/he will win the nomination" cannot be fact-based when both Hillary AND Sanders AND O'Malley (remember him?) lost in 2016. Remember Tim Kaine talking about how he had won every one of his EIGHT statewide races?
Also on the GOP side in 2016 Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio had all won their previous statewide races. So this obviously cuts across party lines.
