Biden seals comeback with Super Tuesday victories but Sanders takes California
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Joe Biden has won eight of the 14 states that voted to pick a Democratic White House candidate on Super Tuesday, in a remarkable rebound for his campaign.
But AP is reporting Bernie Sanders seized Super Tuesday’s biggest prize with a victory in California although Biden won Texas the state with the second-largest number of delegates on Super Tuesday, cementing his new status as frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The former US vice-president has swept Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia.
CBS News and USA Today projects Bernie Sanders will win Colorado, Utah and his home state of Vermont.
Vermont Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks during his primary night event on Super Tuesday at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction, Vermont, USA. EPA-EFE/HERB SWANSON
They lead the race to anoint a Democrat who will face President Donald Trump, a Republican, in November’s election.
US media are also projecting that Mr Biden has won Minnesota.
CBS News projects Massachusetts is also leaning Mr Biden’s way, a heavy blow to his rival and the liberal state’s own Senator, Elizabeth Warren.
Buoyed by last-minute endorsements from former rivals who dropped out of the race, Mr Biden is hoping to blunt the momentum of Mr Sanders, who was the frontrunner nationally on the eve of the vote.
Mr Biden’s under-staffed and under-funded campaign has been resurgent since his commanding win in South Carolina’s primary at the weekend. It was the first time the 77-year-old had won any contest in three White House runs.
Exit poll data suggests Mr Biden has won large majorities of African-American voters, a crucial bloc for the Democratic party.
The former vice president got the largest share of the vote in eight states, two of which — Virginia and North Carolina — also offer a large number of delegates – and Texas, the biggest prize so far with 228 delegates.
Mike Bloomberg and Tulsi Gabbard picked up their first delegate wins in the American Samoa caucuses. Bloomberg was awarded four delegates while Gabbard was awarded one.
More than 1,300 delegates were at stake — over 30% of all the pledged delegates available — making it one of the most important days of the primary season. Only 155 delegates are awarded in the first four voting contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
Sanders had predicted victory in California, the day’s largest delegate prize. The state, like delegate-rich Texas, plays to his strengths, given its significant factions of liberal whites, large urban areas with younger voters and strong Latino populations.
Mike Bloomberg’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination stands at a crossroads after results from Super Tuesday voting indicated his $500m gamble had failed.
The questions will start with the wisdom of Bloomberg foregoing the first four state contests to plow more than half a billion dollars of his estimated $55bn personal fortune into campaigning in the 14 Super Tuesday states and territories, with only a victory in tiny American Samoa to show for it.
The former New York mayor and media mogul attempted to maintain an upbeat demeanor during Tuesday evening’s appearance at a campaign rally for supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, which holds its own primary on 17 March.
