threatening to run away with the race. Fearful that a
Sanders nomination would mean a second term for
Trump, Biden’s moderate rivals Pete Buttigieg and
Amy Klobuchar dropped out and endorsed him. Soon
after, Biden cleaned up on Super Tuesday, winning
10 of 14 states and effectively clinching the contest.
Harris endorsed Biden the next weekend, the 55th
anniversary of Bloody Sunday, just before walking
across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., with
Representative John Lewis.
Biden felt vindicated. Progressives had insisted
the party was in a revolutionary mood; instead, vot-
ers chose Biden’s pragmatism. Doubters predicted
Biden’s record on race would haunt him; instead, he
had Black voters to thank for reviving his campaign.
Critics had lampooned “unity” as boring pabulum;
instead, it seemed to resonate. “I was able to, against
advice from a lot of people, do the things that I was
told were gonna hurt me politically,” Biden says. “But
I would argue that it turned out that that’s what the
American people were looking for: they’re looking
for some honesty, decency, respect, unity.”Just as he found his footing, the ground shifted
beneath his feet. By March 10, it was clear that the
corona virus would make it impossible to run a tradi-
tional campaign. “It was the culmination of all of the
work that we’ve done for a year,” says Biden’s deputy
PHOTOGRAPH BY SEPTEMBER DAWN BOTTOMS FOR TIME