A8 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020 S LATIMES.COM
this race is shaking out.
Sanders, meanwhile, did
not make public remarks
Tuesday night after return-
ing home to Burlington, Vt.
And before you ask: Yes,
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
is still in the mix. But aside
from scooping up a pair of
In a presidential race de-
fined by its unpredictability,
Tuesday’s election results
have, for now, traded sur-
prise for status quo — and
that is good news for Joe
Biden.
With 352 delegates at
stake across six states —
Michigan, Missouri, Missis-
sippi, Idaho, North Dakota
and Washington — this se-
quel to Super Tuesday was
all about who has the edge in
this effectively two-man
race.
Biden added to his win
column early in the night,
with victories in Mississippi
and Missouri, according to
Associated Press projec-
tions, followed by a victory in
Michigan, the top delegate
prize of the night. He also
won Idaho. The Michigan re-
sults dealt a blow to Sand-
ers, who was hoping for a re-
peat of his upset win there
over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Here are the big take-
aways from the most recent
round of balloting:
Biden’s glide path
to the nomination
Remember when the
question was whether Bid-
en’s campaign would make it
to South Carolina at all?
That was just over two weeks
ago — or several lifetimes,
when it comes to news cy-
cles.
Now, the former vice
president is closing out
Tuesday night as the near-
certain Democratic nomi-
nee.
Wild things can happen,
of course, as this primary
race has already shown. But
Biden has accumulated a
lead of more than 150 dele-
gates in the chase to clinch
the nomination. Sanders
would need to win more than
55% of delegates in the re-
maining contests to take
back the lead. And there is
rougher territory ahead for
the Vermont senator, par-
ticularly in upcoming states
such as Florida and Ohio,
where Biden is favored.
In his election night
speech in Philadelphia, Bid-
en struck a tone that was
more solemn than boastful,
taking care to praise Sand-
ers and invite his followers
into the fold. It was a show of
magnanimity that comes
from confidence in the way
delegates in American
Samoa, she has failed to es-
tablish herself as a serious
contender to capture the
nomination.
His Southern
comfort zone
Biden owes his candi-
dacy to African American
voters in the South, banking
impressive margins among
that group first in South
Carolina, and then in Virgin-
ia, North Carolina, Alabama
and Tennessee. On Tuesday,
his dominance continued in
Mississippi, where nearly
two-thirds of Democratic
primary voters were black,
according to exit polls; more
than 80% of those African
American voters supported
Biden.
Biden was considered
such a lock to win the Mag-
nolia State that Sanders’
campaign canceled a
planned speech there last
week, opting instead to
spend more time in Michi-
gan. There, Sanders touted
the endorsement of the Rev.
Jesse Jackson, the civil
rights leader and former
presidential candidate, in
hopes of making inroads
with African American vot-
ers.
For Sanders, the
same ‘old’ problem
Even before voting ended
in Missouri, early exit polls
from the state signaled a big
problem for Sanders: About
three-quarters of the voters
Six takeaways from six diverse states
By Melanie Mason
[SeeTakeaways,A9]
BERNIE SANDERSspeaks with Spencer Veale outside a polling station in Detroit on Tuesday before heading
home to Vermont. The Michigan results would prove to be the biggest disappointment of the night for Sanders.
Paul SancyaAssociated Press
est compared with last
week’s 15-contest Super
Tuesday extravaganza. A
mere 352 pledged delegates
were at stake, compared
with nearly 1,400 a week ago.
Still, the outcome in the
six contests seemed likely to
significantly shape the cam-
paign going forward.
The vote came as the two
candidates were moving in
opposite directions.
After facing near political
death, Biden was on the as-
cent, showered with millions
of dollars in contributions
and bolstered by dozens of
fresh endorsements after his
10 Super Tuesday victories.
(He picked up another Tues-
day night, from former rival
Andrew Yang.)
Sanders was struggling
to overcome Biden’s growing
momentum as well as dele-
gate math that makes his
path to the White House in-
creasingly steep.
Many in the party sug-
gested it was time for the
senator to face an increas-
ingly bleak reality.
South Carolina Rep.
James E. Clyburn, whose en-
dorsement was instrumen-
tal in launching Biden to vic-
tory in his home state — a
win that changed the course
of the race overnight — said
on NPR that it was time to
“shut this primary down,”
starting with the cancella-
tion of a two-man debate
scheduled for Sunday in
Phoenix.
Guy Cecil, the head of
Priorities USA, a major
Democratic political action
committee, said “the math is
now clear” and announced
the organization would
throw its considerable
weight behind Biden, begin-
ning Wednesday with a TV
spot in the November battle-
ground state of Pennsylva-
nia.
On the left, Ilya Shey-
man, former head of the
progressive political group
MoveOn, sent “love and
care” to Sanders and his
campaign even as he sig-
naled his belief the Demo-
cratic race was over. “We
need unity in Nov. to stop
Trump, win Senate & build
future,” he wrote on Twitter.
Biden entered the day
with 664 pledged delegates
to Sanders’ 573, according to
the Associated Press. It
takes 1,991 delegates to win
the nomination on the first
ballot at the Democrats’
July convention, and Biden
gained at least 150 delegates
and Sanders 88, according to
the AP.
Before the polls closed,
Sanders and Biden an-
nounced they were cancel-
ing election night rallies
scheduled in Cleveland
ahead of next week’s Ohio
primary, due to concerns
about the spreading co-
ronavirus. Biden spoke in-
stead at the National Con-
stitution Center in Philadel-
phia, where his campaign is
headquartered.
Both camps said they
would look to healthcare ex-
perts as they schedule
events going forward.
The absence of large pub-
lic gatherings — a trade-
mark of Sanders’ two runs
for president and an impor-
tant organizing tool — could
further dampen his hopes of
surging back into con-
tention, said Stuart Rothen-
berg, an independent cam-
paign analyst. “Without
those enthusiastic rallies,
it’s hard to see how Bernie
changes the trajectory of
the Democratic contest,”
Rothenberg said.
“The Democratic race is
over,” he added. “The only
question is whether Bernie
Sanders knows it and ad-
mits it.”
Of Tuesday’s six con-
tests, Michigan appeared to
be the most important, of-
fering the largest share of
delegates — 125 — and carry-
ing important symbolic
weight.
Sanders won the state
four years ago, a victory that
sparked his insurgent cam-
paign just as Hillary Clinton
seemed about to wrap up the
nomination, and his empha-
sis on working-class issues
seemed especially well tai-
lored to a large blue-collar
electorate that has faced
years of industrial decline
and massive job losses to
low-wage countries. He can-
celed appearances in three
other states to spend more
time in Michigan, a move
that underscored its politi-
cal import.
As he did in 2016, Sanders
focused on trade, attacking
Biden for his support of the
North American Free Trade
Agreement while serving in
the Senate in the 1990s.
Sanders raised the issue in
two TV spots, one featuring
an autoworker who said his
community “has been deci-
mated by trade deals” and
lumping Biden together
with President Trump.
But those attacks
seemed to gain little pur-
chase against Biden, who
rolled out the endorsement
of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
and other political luminar-
ies. In a stark contrast with
Clinton, he ran strongly
among Michigan voters of all
type: black and white, those
with college degrees and
without, city dwellers as well
as suburbanites.
Elsewhere, Mississippi
and Missouri had both ap-
peared promising for Biden
from the start, given their re-
spective political makeup
and histories. (Clinton won
both states four years ago.)
In Missouri, more than
three-quarters of those who
voted Tuesday said they
were moderate or only
“somewhat” liberal, words
that could be used to de-
scribe Biden.
In Mississippi, the former
vice president prevailed on
the strength of overwhelm-
ing black support, repeating
the pattern that carried him
to victory Feb. 29 in South
Carolina and helped him
capture five more states
across the South on Super
Tuesday.
African Americans made
up two-thirds of the Missis-
sippi electorate, and nearly 9
in 10 voted for Biden. He also
carried the black vote by siz-
able margins in Michigan
and Missouri.
Repeating another pat-
tern seen nationwide, the
majority of voters in Michi-
gan, Mississippi, Missouri
and Washington said their
top priority was choosing a
candidate who could beat
Trump in November, rather
than one who agreed with
them on issues. They voted
in much greater numbers for
Biden over Sanders, as they
have in most other states,
according to exit polls con-
ducted by Edison Research.
The Vermont senator
easily won North Dakota,
Idaho and Washington in
- On Tuesday, the only
place he came close to
matching his performance
four years ago was in North
Dakota, which is a caucus
state.
Idaho and Washington
were caucus states then.
This year they held prima-
ries under a rules change
supported by Sanders in
hopes of boosting voter par-
ticipation.
Times staff writer Melissa
Gomez contributed to this
report.
JOE BIDEN speaks with autoworkers at a Fiat Chrysler plant in Detroit on Tuesday. In winning Michigan, where Bernie Sanders won in
2016, Biden ran strongly among voters of all types: black and white, those with college degrees and without, city dwellers and suburbanites.
Mandel NganAFP/Getty Images
Biden adds wins in Michigan, 3 other states
[Election,from A1]
‘The Democratic
race is over. The
only question is
whether Bernie
Sanders knows it
and admits it.’
— Stuart
Rothenberg,
independent campaign analyst
ELECTION 2020