The Boston Globe - 11.03.2020

A12 TheNation The Boston Globe WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020

CAMPAIGN 2020

the establishment candidate
they deemed a safer choice
than a self-described demo-
cratic socialist.
With 81 percent of Michi-
gan precincts reporting, Biden
had 53 percent of the vote to
38 percent for Sanders. The
victory in the biggest prize of
the six contests on Tuesday
helped widen Biden’s delegate
lead.
“Although there’s a way to
go, it looks like we’re going to
have another good night,”
Biden said late Tuesday, after
repeating a line he’s used often
lately about his resurgent cam-
paign being for all those who
have been “knocked down...
counted out, left behind.”
“It’s more than a comeback
in my view, our campaign, it’s
a comeback for the soul of this
nation,” he said. “This cam-
paign is taking off and I be-
lieve we’re going to do well
from this point on.”
Just hours before polls
closed, both the Biden and
Sanders campaigns canceled
rallies scheduled in Cleveland
amid concerns over the spread
of the coronavirus. Ohio holds
its primary next Tuesday.
Biden also won resounding
victories in Mississippi and
Missouri, states where he en-
joyed strong support from
Black voters. Contests in
North Dakota, Idaho, and
Washington state were too
close to call late Tuesday. Still,
Biden’s victories in the South
and Midwest continued a dra-
matic turnaround for a cam-
paignthatwasonlifesupport
after poor performances in Io-
wa and New Hampshire.
But a big win in South Car-
olina on Feb. 29 gave Biden a
surge of momentum. He won
10 of 14 contests on Super
Tuesday last week, giving him
670 delegates, about 100 more
than Sanders heading into

uDEMOCRATS
Continued from Page A

Tuesday’s contests, according

to the Associated Press. The

other top candidates, includ-

ing Senator Elizabeth Warren,

dropped out in recent days,

turning the race into a two-

man contest.

Michigan was a key test in

part because it looms as an im-

portant state for Democrats in

the fall. Trump’s narrow win

there four years ago on the

strength of working-class

angst helped him win election.

But in the 2018 congressional

midterms, two moderate Dem-

ocrats flipped Republican

House seats in Michigan, sig-

naling an opening for Demo-

crats in the 2020 general elec-

tion if they chose a candidate

who can appeal to moderates

and Republicans.

Michigan was seen as Sand-

ers’ best hope to slow Biden’s

momentum. Sanders canceled

a Friday stop in Mississippi to

focus his time and resources

on Michigan, which awarded

125 delegates on Tuesday, the

largest haul of the six voting

states. In all, 352 delegates

were up for grabs.

Michigan voters have a

complicated relationship with

the two candidates. In 2016,

voters backed Sanders in part

because of his opposition to

trade deals including the

North American Free Trade

Agreement, which hurt the lo-

cal auto industry. But many in

Michigan also felt loyal to

Biden because the Obama ad-

ministration oversaw federal

bailouts of that same industry

after the 2008 financial crisis.

Sanders appeared over the

weekendinMichiganflanked

by key surrogates, including

the Rev. Jesse Jackson and

New York Representative Alex-

andria Ocasio-Cortez, and he

warned voters that turnout

would be key to a victory

there.

Yet early data on Tuesday

indicated that young people

did not vote at the level need-

ed to deliver Sanders a win.

With Sanders’ loss in Mich-

igan, it becomes much more

difficult for him to overtake

Biden. The former vice presi-

dent appears to have an edge

in key upcoming primaries, in

states including Florida and

Georgia.

To win the party’s nomina-

tion on the first ballot at this

summer’s convention, a candi-

date needs a majority of the

nearly 4,000 Democratic dele-

gates – at least 1,991. Going

into Tuesday, a little more than

a third of the delegates had

been allocated, according to

the Associated Press.

Next Tuesday, another huge

batch of delegates will be

available: a total of 577 from

primaries in Arizona, Florida,

Illinois, and Ohio. The biggest

day left in the Democratic race

doesn’t come until April 28,

when 663 delegates will be on

the line with New York and

Pennsylvania among six states

holding primaries, along with

Rhode Island and Connecti-

cut.

Biden’s Super Tuesday wins

in Massachusetts, Texas, Vir-

ginia, North Carolina, and

elsewhere also blessed his

once-struggling campaign

with an influx of cash — $

million in five days, according

to his staff. That has allowed

them to expand advertising.

Biden also has continued to

receive key endorsements as

the Democratic Party estab-

lishment rallies around him,

getting the backing in recent

days of former rivals Califor-

nia Senator Kamala Harris

and New Jersey Senator Cory

Booker as well as Michigan

Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

While Sanders has strug-

gled to win over Black voters,

Biden’s strong support among

that demographic helped him

win in Michigan as well, be-

cause Black voters there also

make up a large share of the

Democratic electorate.

The audience at Biden’s ral-

ly in Tougaloo College last

weekend was the most ener-

getic of the weekend and the

crowd was predominantly

Black. Voters were quick to

cite Biden’s support for Barack

Obamaandtrackrecordon

civil rights as reasons why

they were supporting him.

Vern Gavin, 69, said he be-

lieved Sanders was a good can-

didate with a strong platform

but didn’t think this was his

time or that he was the best

person to face Trump. He saw

Biden as the most “electable

choice.”

'I’minlinewithBernie,but

I think he’s a little bit over the

top for this [presidential] cam-

paign," he said.

Kim Williams, 39, a Touga-

loo alumni, said she believed

Sanders was “outdated” and

wouldn’t get much accom-

plished. She wasn’t concerned

some found Biden to be prone

to gaffes.

“I think that’s what really

makes him special,” she said of

Biden. “He has the most sup-

port because his record speaks

for itself.”

Laura Krantz can be reached

at [email protected].

Follow her on Twitter

@laurakrantz. Jazmine Ulloa

can be reached at

[email protected] or

on Twitter @jazmineulloa

The mayor of Kansas City,

Mo., was turned away from a

polling place when he tried to

vote in the

state’s primary

Tuesday, a de-

velopment he

found frustrating and emblem-

atic of broader problems with

the American voting system.

The mayor, Quinton Lucas,

said on Twitter that he had

been told he “wasn’t in the sys-

tem” at a polling place he had

used for more than a decade.

The episode unfolded shortly

after he made a video in which

he discussed the importance of

voting and encouraged people

to show up at the polls.

“If the mayor can get turned

away, think about everyone

else,” he wrote on Twitter. “We

gotta do better.”

The mayor’s experience was

a high-profile hiccup in Mis-

souri, one of the six states hold-

ing a primary or caucus Tues-

day — contests that could play

a significant role in shaping the

Democratic presidential race.

Though Lucas said in an in-

terview that he was later told

that he was in fact on the voter

rolls and had been turned away

by mistake, he said the situa-

tion was illustrative of larger

problems, namely how hard it

can be to vote in America.

Lucas, a Democrat who be-

gan his term in 2019, said he

had used a utility bill to verify

his identity, but during a 10-

minute exchange with a poll

worker, he was repeatedly told

he could not be found on the

voter rolls.

Less than an hour after he

tried to vote, he received a call

from an election official in-

forming him that the poll work-

erhadsimplyenteredhisname

incorrectly, inputting his last

name as his first name and vice

versa.

Lucas noted that his long-

time polling place — where he

has previously voted for himself

— was a Baptist church in an

area where he estimated the

electorate was about 80 percent

Black.

The mayor, whose spokes-

woman said he successfully

cast a ballot in a second at-

tempt later Tuesday, noted that

other voters who were turned

away would not have been in a

position to get clarification di-

rectly from an election official.

Because of work or other obli-

gations, many might not have

been able to go to their polling

places a second time, he said.

“I get that mistakes hap-

pen,” he said, adding: “We need

to make sure we have a system

where we don’t have mistakes.”

NEW YORK TIMES

Coronavirusupsetting

presidentialcontests

The nation’s presidential

race entered an unpredictable

new phase on Tuesday after the

two leading Democratic candi-

dates canceled big primary-

night campaign events because

of worries about the coronavi-

rus, and Vice President Mike

Pence said that the future of

President Trump’s signature

rallies would be decided on a “a

day-to-day basis.”

The disruption to traditional

campaigning was the first pow-

erful sign that the virus is

changing American politics,

coming at the height of a pri-

mary season as Senator Bernie

Sanders and former vice presi-

dent Joe Biden battle for the

Democratic nomination. Sand-

ers especially relies on huge ral-

lies to energize his base of

younger voters — the kind of

barnstorming he needs to halt

Biden’s growing momentum in

the race.

Sanders, quickly followed by

Biden, called off events sched-

uled for Ohio just hours before

they were set to begin and as

the candidates awaited the re-

sults of voting in six other

states. Governor Mike DeWine

of Ohio, a Republican, had

asked earlier Tuesday for all

major indoor events to be can-

celed. The Sanders and Biden

campaigns indicated they

would evaluate future events;

the Biden campaign added one

for Tuesday night in Philadel-

phia.

NEW YORK TIMES

PartybeefsupN.D.staff

amidheavyvoterturnout

FARGO, N.D. — Democrats

moved Tuesday to bolster staff-

ing at the largest of North Da-

kota’s 14 caucus sites after

heavy turnout forced some vot-

ers in Fargo to wait in line as

long as an hour.

The party was expecting a

big surge in turnout due to a

revamping of the state’s caucus

system and high interest in the

presidential race. North Dakota

shifted this year from tradition-

al caucuses to so-called “fire-

house caucuses” that function

largely like a typical election,

with voters able to show up,

cast a ballot and leave.

The process is run by the

parties. Democrats set up 14

voting sites around the state,

with voting from 11 a.m. to 7

p.m.

The lines were longest in

Fargo, the state’s largest city

and home to North Dakota

State University. The party said

wait times in Grand Forks,

home to the University of

North Dakota, were about 40

minutes.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Missouri city mayor not ‘in the

system’ initially kept from polls

BidenwinssolidlyinMichigan,akeysetbacktoSanders

PAUL VERNON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Former vice president Joe Biden was already on Tuesday looking ahead to

next week, as he spoke at a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio.

MAX ORTIZ/DETROIT NEWS VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

On Monday, Senator Bernie Sanders spoke to health officials about the

coronavirus outbreak, at the Westin Hotel in Romulus, Mich.

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