A6 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020 S LATIMES.COM
6 in 10 voters made up their
minds in recent days and
most backed Biden, accord-
ing to exit polls conducted
by Edison Research for a
consortium of TV networks.
In Alabama, nearly 4 in 10
voters decided late and
more than 60% backed him.
Perhaps the greatest tes-
tament to Biden’s remarka-
ble resurgence was the
support of voters who said
their top priority was beat-
ing Trump, an obsession
among the president’s crit-
ics from the moment he took
office.
Biden’s candidacy was
predicated almost entirely
on his claims of electability,
which rang hollow after he
finished far out of con-
tention in the first two con-
tests and a distant second in
Nevada.
But on Tuesday night,
exit polls showed in state af-
ter state that most voters
were focused less on ideol-
ogy than defeating the pres-
ident; they preferred Biden
over Sanders — often by
huge margins.
“He’s going to get the job
done and he’s gonna beat
Donald Trump,” Angeline
Sanders, 74, said of Biden af-
ter voting for him at the Jor-
dan Downs housing project
community center near
Watts Towers in South Los
Angeles. “None of the rest of
them can do it. And it sure
isn’t going to be Bernie
Sanders.”
Even before the polls had
closed in California, a joyful
and energized Biden took
the stage at a park in Bald-
win Hills, telling hundreds of
supporters, “It’s a good
night, and it seems to be get-
ting even better. They don’t
call it Super Tuesday for
nothin’!”
Biden assailed critics
who left his campaign for
dead before he ran away
with the contest in South
Carolina.
“I am here to report we
are very much alive, and
make no mistake about it,
this campaign will send
Donald Trump packing!”
said Biden, who was at a
near-shout for much of his
speech, in contrast to previ-
ous low-key election night
appearances.
He then previewed some
of the issues he may high-
light as he tries to outlast
Sanders: “affordable and ac-
cessible” healthcare, lower
drug prices and a promise to
find cures for cancer and di-
abetes. He also cited gun
control, more affordable col-
lege and a redoubled com-
mitment to fighting climate
change.
Across the country, a
combative Sanders jabbed
at his suddenly ascendant
rival and hinted at his own
campaign agenda going for-
ward.
“One of us in this race led
the opposition to the war in
Iraq; you’re looking at him,”
Sanders thundered at a
boisterous Vermont rally,
where he also questioned
Biden’s commitment to
funding programs such as
Social Security and Medi-
care.
“One of us led the opposi-
tion to the disastrous trade
agreement which cost us
millions of good-paying jobs.And that’s me. And another
candidate voted for disas-
trous trade agreements,” he
continued.
“If it comes out to be a
campaign in which we have
one candidate who is stand-
ing up for the working class
and the middle class, we’re
going to win that election,”
Sanders said. “And if we
have another candidate who
has received contributions
from at least 60 billionaires,
we’re going to win that elec-
tion.”
The other major contest-ant, Massachusetts Sen.
Elizabeth Warren, ad-
dressed a crowd in Michi-
gan, which votes next Tues-
day, before the results came
in showing her finishing
third in her home state. She
vowed to press on despite
failing to win a single state
since the voting began Feb. 3
in Iowa.
“I’m the woman who’s go-
ing to beat Donald Trump,”
she said. “The pundits have
gotten it wrong over and
over.”
The Super Tuesday com-petition amounted to a fight
pitting Biden’s momentum
against Sanders’ muscle
and Bloomberg’s money.
Sanders, who waged a
strong bid for the 2016 nomi-
nation, was the candidate
with muscle, a powerful
turnout operation financed
by an enormous fundraising
base and a national army of
devoted fans. Ivan DePaz
voted for the Vermont sen-
ator just as he did four years
ago.
“I love what he’s done. I
love that he stands by what
he says, and he’s been doing
that since he started,” the
55-year-old talent manager
said after casting his ballot
in Los Feliz.
Biden, who staked his en-
tire campaign on winning
South Carolina, entered Su-
per Tuesday badly lagging
Bloomberg and Sanders in
campaign money and on-
the-ground organizing, two
components that were con-
sidered vital to success in a
such a large and sprawling
contest.
It didn’t seem to matter.
His powerful showing on
Saturday was enough to
bring Frank Anderson
around, along with a great
many others.
The 74-year-old retired
hospital administrator in
Birmingham, Ala., had long
considered himself a Biden
man. But he began to worry
after the former vice presi-
dent slumped in Iowa and
New Hampshire, finishing in
fourth and fifth place, re-
spectively.
South Carolina alleviat-
ed Anderson’s concerns.
“Now I think he is the guy,”
he said.
The candidate with mon-
ey in staggering sums was
Bloomberg. After two unin-
spiring debate perform-
ances, he braced for a poor
showing despite lavishing
more than $660 million on
his candidacy, including
more than $224 million on
Super Tuesday advertising
alone.
Speaking to reporters at
a Miami field office,
Bloomberg said he wasn’t
counting on winning a single
state and suggested his
hopes rested on Democrats
turning to him in the event of
a deadlocked convention —
the same scenario that War-
ren clings to.
“You don’t have to win
states,” Bloomberg said,
“you have to win delegates.”
Even before Tuesday’s
first votes were counted,
Bloomberg’s campaign
manager sounded as though
his candidate was preparing
a possible exit from the race.
“We will find out how well
he does tonight, and we’ll
find out whether Mike
Bloomberg is on his way tobecoming the candidate, or
we will find out if Mike
Bloomberg is going to be the
most important person to
whomever that candidate
is,” Kevin Sheekey told re-
porters ahead of a Florida
campaign rally.
Super Tuesday was so
named because of the num-
ber of contests — 16, includ-
ing Democrats abroad, who
have a week to make their
preferences known — and
the 1,357 pledged delegates
to be awarded. It takes 1,
pledged delegates to win the
nomination on the first
round of balloting.
If the fight goes to a sec-
ond round at the conven-
tion, it takes 2,375.5, or the
majority of those eligible to
vote, which includes super-
delegates — elected officials
and other party leaders —
or, as they’re being called
this election, “automatic”
delegates.
Sanders entered the day
with a narrow lead over Bid-
en in the pledged delegate
count, according to the As-
sociated Press, after a small
fraction was awarded in the
four earliest-voting states.
Biden pulled ahead
Tuesday night, but it will
take some time before Cali-
fornia and Texas divvy up
their share, which together
accounted for nearly half the
delegates being awarded on
Tuesday.
Under rules established
by the Democratic Party,
delegates were allotted on a
percentage basis, based on a
candidate’s performance at
both the statewide and con-
gressional district levels. In
each, candidates needed to
meet a 15% threshold of sup-
port.
In Washington, Trump
professed not to care whom
Democrats choose.
Though he continued his
effort to sow discord, claim-
ing the Democratic estab-
lishment is trying to steal
the nomination from Sand-
ers, Trump insisted, “Who-
ever it is, we will take them
on.”
“The job we’ve done.
We’ve rebuilt the military,
we have the strongest econ-
omy we’ve ever had, all of the
things we’ve done,” he told
reporters as he left the
White House to visit the Na-
tional Institutes of Health, a
lead agency in combating
the novel coronavirus. “I will
take on anybody.”Times staff writers Noah
Bierman in Washington,
Jenny Jarvie in
Birmingham, Michael
Finnegan in Warren,
Mich., and Melissa Gomez,
Arit John, Seema Mehta
and Matt Pearce in Los
Angeles contributed to this
report.ON A NIGHTthat belonged largely to Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders was upbeat at an election night rally in Essex Junction, Vt., taking jabs at his fast-ascending rival.
Charles KrupaAssociated PressBiden wins Texas, 8 other states
[President, from A1]
ELIZABETH WARRENfinished third in her home state of Massachusetts and
won only a few delegates Tuesday, but at a Detroit rally she vowed to push on.Seth HeraldAFP/Getty ImagesIN THE FIRST contests in which he appeared on the ballot, Michael R.
Bloomberg won American Samoa but failed to win any states on Super Tuesday.Eva Marie UzcateguiAFP/Getty ImagesELECTION 2020