Earlier Tuesday the U.S. House Judiciary Committee sent two articles of impeachment to the Democratic leadership of the House. That evening, 40 Memphis Democrats gathered in Cooper-Young in what amounts to the city's first sustained stirrings for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The organizers, including veteran local Democratic operative David Upton and former state Democratic Party chairman Chip Forrester of Nashville, are backing former Vice President Joe Biden. And their pitch put a heavy emphasis on their belief that he is the only Democratic contender who can beat President Donald Trump in a general election.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, an early supporter of Biden, said the “number one priority” of Democrats locally should be a nominee who can beat Trump.

Democratic state Senator Raumesh Akbari made the same argument.

“We are being humiliated on a national stage like we never have been before,” she said, referring to Trump.

But she, Harris, Upton and Forrester realized that there were many in the room at Epicenter who are either undecided or backing others in the Democratic pack of more than a dozen declared candidates.

“This is a process. We’ll go from being spectators to being in the middle of it,” Upton said of the calendar of primaries and caucuses that start in Iowa in February, go to New Hampshire and then South Carolina before Tennessee and 13 other states in the March 3 Super Tuesday set of primaries.

“We could have a bunch of candidates show up,” he said. “It’ll never be like Iowa and New Hampshire.”

Memphis representatives in D.C. take starkly different positions on impeachment

Since the first Super Tuesday primaries in 1988, the prospect of up to a third of all delegates at stake in one election day has been tempered by candidates picking states in the pack to focus on and being vague about what defines success for them in terms of how they finish.

Tennessee has been carried by the Republican nominee for President in every presidential general election starting in 2000 when another Vice President, Al Gore, of Tennessee, was the Democratic nominee.

Shelby County remains Democratic territory thanks to the majority Democratic voter base in Memphis. But the suburbs outside Memphis are the largest base of Republican votes in a single county in Tennessee.

Forrester, a veteran of Barack Obama’s two Tennessee campaigns including Obama’s ultimate national victory in 2008 over Senator Hillary Clinton, predicts nobody in the Democratic “gang of four” — Biden, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg — will be on a clear path to the nomination by Super Tuesday.

“The wild card in this race, in my opinion, is Bloomberg,” he said of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a recent entry in the Democratic primaries. “He’s going to spend no money in the first four primaries or caucuses. And then spend probably $50 million to $100 million for Super Tuesday to try to propel himself. The problem is the African American community does not hold him in good standing.”

Several audience members shouted “stop and frisk” — the controversial New York City police policy that was enacted during Bloomberg’s tenure. Others cited a previous abbreviated presidential bid as a Republican.

“Shelby County is the focus where this race statewide is going to happen,” Forrester said “I believe the only person who can win the general election as the Democratic nominee is Joe Biden. If you look at the undecided voters and the middle-of-the-road voters — we can talk about Medicaid for all. We can talk about college tuition debt retirement. … but that’s not what’s going to elect a Democrat.”

Warren made an early campaign appearance in Memphis this past March and has some local support. Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, spoke at a Germantown fundraiser this past September. There are 16 contenders on the ballot in the Tennessee Democratic primary.

Trump has challengers in the Republican presidential primary ballot in Tennessee from former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld.

Fields set for March Tennessee presidential primaries

Upton and other veteran Democrats in the crowd admitted it’s been a few campaign seasons since those in a Democratic presidential pack fought for a Democratic base on the way to the nomination.

Obama and Clinton battled for support in the state in the 2008 primaries, although Obama made no stops in Memphis. Nevertheless, Obama carried Shelby County as Clinton took the Tennessee primary.

The 1980s saw competitive packs of Democratic contenders battling for the right to challenge Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

In the 1984 and 1988 Tennessee Democratic primaries, civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson carried Shelby County as vice president Walter Mondale took the state in 1984 and Gore took the state in 1988, the year that the Super Tuesday set of primaries made their debut. Gore and Jackson were part of a Democratic pack of seven contenders.

The deadline to register to vote in the March 3 Tennessee primaries, if you are not already registered to vote is Feb. 3. Early voting in advance of election day is Feb. 12-25.