The Wall Street Journal - 19.03.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Thursday, March 19, 2020 |A

U.S. NEWS

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sand-
ers is weighing the future of
his campaign after a third
consecutive string of losses to
former Vice President Joe Bi-
den in the Democratic presi-
dential race.
One day after Mr. Biden
swept all three Tuesday pri-
maries, held in Florida, Illi-
nois and Arizona, Mr. Sand-
ers’s campaign manager, Faiz
Shakir, said the Vermont sen-
ator “is going to be having
conversations with supporters
to assess his campaign.”
Mr. Shakir signaled a deci-
sion was pending and said Mr.
Sanders was focused on the
coronavirus pandemic, point-
ing out that the next primary
contest isn’t scheduled for
weeks. Georgia, which had
been scheduled to hold its pri-
mary next week, delayed it un-
til May because of the virus.
Mr. Sanders, who was in
Washington on Wednesday for
Senate votes on coronavirus-
response legislation, grew
frustrated when asked by re-
porters about his time frame
for making a decision.
“I’m dealing with a f—ing
global crisis. And you’re ask-
ing me these questions,” Mr.
Sanders said, according to
CNN. “Right now, I’m trying
to do my best to make sure
that we don’t have an eco-
nomic meltdown and that
people don’t die.”
Mr. Sanders planned to re-
turn to his home in Vermont
after the votes to “assess the
path forward” with his wife,
Jane O’Meara Sanders, ac-
cording to an email Mr. Shakir
sent to supporters earlier in
the day.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sanders’s
campaign had deactivated its
digital ads on Facebook as of
Wednesday morning, includ-
ing ones that began running
just a day earlier, according
to the social network’s ad
transparency report. The
Sanders campaign also hasn’t
reserved any television time

past this week, according to
political ad tracker Kantar/
CMAG.
Mike Casca, a spokesman
for Mr. Sanders, said that the
campaign deactivated all digi-
tal ads because it was “con-
serving resources.” The cam-
paign said it didn’t book new
TV ads for the same reason.
Mr. Sanders didn’t address
supporters on Tuesday as the
results widened Mr. Biden’s
delegate lead and further ce-
mented the former vice presi-
dent’s likely path to the nomi-
nation.
In Florida, a key general-
election battleground, Mr. Bi-
den carried all 67 counties. He
also led Mr. Sanders by dou-
ble digits in Illinois and Ari-
zona.
Mr. Biden has won 1,
pledged delegates so far, ac-
cording to a Wall Street Jour-
nal delegate tracker, com-
pared with Mr. Sanders at 861.
Candidates need 1,991 dele-
gates to secure the nomina-
tion at the Democratic con-
vention this summer.
Mr. Biden’s campaign said
Mr. Sanders would need to
win every remaining contest
by roughly 40 points to close
the delegate deficit.
“This primary is nowhere
near as close as the 2008 and
2016 Democratic primaries,”
Mr. Biden’s deputy campaign
manager, Kate Bedingfield,
wrote in a memo on Wednes-
day.
Mr. Biden made a direct ap-
peal to supporters of Mr.
Sanders in remarks Tuesday
night from his hometown of
Wilmington, Del., saying they
agreed on broader priorities
around health care, climate
change and college affordabil-
ity.
“Let me say to the young
voters inspired by Sen. Sand-
ers, I hear you. I know what’s
at stake,” Mr. Biden said.
“Sen. Sanders and I may dis-
agree on tactics, but we share
a common vision.”

BYSABRINASIDDIQUI

Bruised

Sanders

Ponders

Next Step

Mr. Biden decisively

won all three state

primaries that were

held Tuesday.

An earthquake shook Utah

awake Wednesday morning,

knocking out power and damag-

ing infrastructure while the state

was already hunkered down to

slow the spread of coronavirus.

The 5.7-magnitude temblor,

the largest in Utah since 1992,

struck about 10 miles west of

downtown Salt Lake City just

after 7 a.m. More than a dozen

aftershocks followed the quake.

Salt Lake City International

Airport, the state’s main hub of

air travel, was closed Wednes-

day morning. The FAA air-control

tower was evacuated, as were

all terminals. The main damage

was a broken water pipe, a

spokeswoman said, and airport

officials were getting it opera-

tional again by the afternoon.

Tens of thousands of people

in the Salt Lake Valley lost power

Wednesday morning, according to

Rocky Mountain Power.

“We currently are assessing

damages and will restore power

as soon as possible,” the com-

pany said on Twitter.

On social media, residents

posted photos and videos of their

homes shaking and items falling

from shelves. The Salt Lake Tem-

ple of the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints, an icon of

the city’s downtown, sustained

minor damage, according to

church officials.

The earthquake came just

as the state was stepping up

its efforts to combat the

spread of coronavirus. Utah’s

first community-spread case of

the virus was confirmed last

weekend.

All bars and restaurants

were ordered to close, except

for takeout and delivery, at

midnight on Tuesday.

Following the earthquake,

Gov. Gary Herbert urged resi-

dents to do what public offi-

cials had already been telling

them to do in response to the

spread of coronavirus: Stay

home.

“Please stay away from the

downtown area while crews as-

sess damage,” Mr. Herbert

wrote on Twitter. “Unless you

work in public safety, or are an

essential employee, remain at

home or telework.”

—Ian Lovett

Utah’s Strongest Earthquake Since 1992 Knocks Out Power and Damages Infrastructure

RICK BOWMER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Illinois Democrat

Loses His Primary

Marie Newman beat eight-

term incumbent Illinois Rep.

Dan Lipinski in the primary on

Tuesday, a win that ignited the

Democratic Party’s left flank.

Ms. Newman, a business-

woman and activist, beat Mr.

Lipinski in an election where

turnout was likely greatly af-

fected by the coronavirus pan-

demic. Ms. Newman claimed

victory in the race via a state-

ment and not the standard

election party.

“In the face of this uncer-

tainty, I know that we can get

through this together, arm in

arm,” she said.

The district is safely Demo-

cratic, so Ms. Newman’s win

means she will almost surely

come to Congress in January.

Her win is the first primary vic-

tory for progressive Democrats

in this cycle.

For Ms. Newman, this was

a comeback fight after losing

to Mr. Lipinski two years ago.

This year, she came to the

2020 race with the endorse-

ment of Chicago Mayor Lori

Lightfoot, as well as the Chi-

cago Sun-Times and New York

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,

a high-profile freshman pro-

gressive in the House.

Ms. Newman dubbed her-

self as a “real Democrat” be-

cause Mr. Lipinski is one of the

few Democrats in the House

who oppose abortion rights and

voted against the Affordable

Care Act in 2010.

Though outside the party

orthodoxy, the House Demo-

crats’ campaign arm helped Mr.

Lipinski by forbidding vendors

from working on primary chal-

lengers’ campaigns.

Progressive Democrats were

also eyeing a race in Ohio

where Morgan Harper, a former

lawyer for the Consumer Finan-

cial Protection Bureau, has

mounted a primary challenge

against Rep. Joyce Beatty. The

primary was delayed because

of the coronavirus pandemic.

—Natalie Andrews

Primary winner Marie Newman.

CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/ASSOCIATED PRESS

state, along with Florida. Mr.

Sanders was losing 13 of 15

counties in incomplete tallies.

Those states look more like

the Democratic Party overall

this year than do the states Mr.

Sanders has won. Through

March 10 in the 10 states that

held open primaries—those

with the most inclusive rules

for who can participate—mod-

erate and conservatives jumped

as a share of the Democratic

voter pool by 7 percentage

points, according to a merger of

exit polls by Public Opinion

Strategies, a polling firm.

Seniors have grown by 5 per-

centage points as a share of the

electorate since 2016 in open-

primary states, and by 7 points

in all states that for which there

are exit polls through March 10.

Some analysts said the re-

sults position Mr. Biden well to

claim the nation’s ideological

middle ground ahead of the

general election, presuming he

becomes the party’s nominee.

“Older voters, suburban vot-

ers, women, and voters of color

tend to be more moderate, and

they are powering Biden

through these primaries. They

are some of the most critical

voting blocs in November,” said

David de la Fuente, political an-

alyst with Third Way, a center-

left Democratic think tank.

Still, Mr. Biden would have

to find a way to unify older and

centrist voters with the more

ideologically driven Sanders

supporters.

“Sanders has had an impact

on moving the policy goals in-

side the Democratic Primary to

the left” on health care, immi-

gration and energy production,

said Micah Roberts, a Republi-

can and pollster with Public

Opinion Strategies. “Biden’s

buy-in with Sanders’s policies

may prove to be an albatross as

Biden attempts to pivot to the

center between now and No-

vember.”

The states that Mr. Sanders

has won had one of two voter

groups in abundance: either un-

usually large shares of self-de-

scribed “very liberal” voters, or

unusually large numbers of in-

dependents participating in the

Democratic contest, exit polls

showed. Mr. Sanders himself

identifies as an independent.

Independent voters cast 45%

of the ballots in New Hampshire

and in Mr. Sanders’s home state

of Vermont—larger shares than

in any other state. Mr. Sanders

won both.

While Mr. Sanders has done

well among independents in

many states, he has rarely won

voters who identify as Demo-

crats—the heart of the party.

On Tuesday, he lost them by

about 3-to-1 in Florida, 2-to-1 in

Illinois, and by a large margin

in Arizona, according to phone

surveys that, because of the

coronavirus, took the place of

in-person exit poll interviews.

Mr. Sanders also won some

racially diverse states—but

mainly those in which many

voters identify themselves as

“very liberal.” They included

California and Nevada, which

along with Vermont have led all

states in “very liberal” mem-

bers of the voter pool. The most

liberal voters also had a big

presence in Maine, which Mr.

Sanders lost by 1 percentage

point.

But “very liberal’’ voters are

shrinking in power within the

party. They fell by 3 percentage

points from 2016 as a share of

voters, according to exit polls

from states that held open pri-

maries before Tuesday.

Joe Biden’s sweeping victo-

ries over Sen. Bernie Sanders in

three states on Tuesday provide

more evidence that the energy

in the Democratic Party is with

its moderate voters and seniors,

not the young and the most lib-

eral.

The results in Florida, Ari-

zona and Illinois fit a pattern

that has come to define the pri-

mary contest: Where voters are

older, moderate or closely

aligned with the Democratic

Party, rather than indepen-

dents, Mr. Sanders doesn’t win.

As it happens, older and

moderate voters are growing as

a share of the Democratic pri-

mary electorate. The youngest

and the most liberal are shrink-

ing in the party’s voter pool, a

fact that was disguised at first

by Mr. Sanders’s impressive

crowds at rallies and fundrais-

ing totals.

The result is that the Ver-

mont senator, trailing in dele-

gates and the combined popular

vote, is now assessing whether

to continue his campaign or

concede to Mr. Biden and bring

the primary race to a close.

In Florida, polling found that

45% of Democratic primary vot-

ers Tuesday called themselves

moderate or conservative, the

highest share of any state to

have voted so far, except for

South Carolina and Virginia. Mr.

Sanders lost every Florida

county.

In Illinois, also rich in mod-

erate voters, Mr. Sanders was

on track to lose every county,

except for the area around the

University of Illinois Urbana-

Champaign, home to 51,000 stu-

dents before the coronavirus

outbreak intervened.

In Arizona, 35% of voters

were age 65 or older, one of the

highest shares of seniors of any

BYAARONZITNER

ANDDANTECHINNI

Older, Moderate Voters Boost Biden

An election worker waited for voters during the Florida primary in Miami on Tuesday.

EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Dolphin.Pivoting armchair, design Cédric Ragot.

Manufactured in Europe.

http://www.roche-bobois.com

French Art de Vivre