Joe Biden won the Mississippi and Missouri Democratic primaries shortly after the polls closed in those two states Tuesday night.
Overall, voters from six states voted as part of the ‘Super Tuesday 2’ primaries that could decide whether Bernie Sanders has a future in the Democratic primary race, as Biden has taken the delegate lead and amassed a number of high-profile Democratic endorsements – all in the span of 10 days.
All eyes are on Michigan for the result there – as it gave Sanders a surprise boost four years ago when he was in the Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton. With 1 per cent in, Sanders held a narrow lead.
Polls also closed in North Dakota at 8 p.m. EST but the results were too early to call.
CNN and NBC called Mississippi for Biden, the Associated Press called Missouri for the former vice president.
Joe Biden (left) and Bernie Sanders (right) both nixed their campaign events Tuesday night, which were both to take place in Cleveland, Ohio. Sanders’ campaign put out a statement saying they were ‘heeding the public warnings from Ohio state officials’
Six states voted as part of Super Tuesday 2: Washington, Idaho, North Dakota, Missouri, Michigan and Mississippi
Several hours before polls started closing Sanders and Biden announced they wouldn’t hold rallies Tuesday night due to coronavirus concerns – putting pressure on President Trump to follow suit.
Instead, Trump announced an upcoming ‘Catholics for Trumps’ event.
Additionally, CNN announced Tuesday evening it would cancel the live audience for the debate it is hosting in Phoenix this Sunday ahead of the next round of primaries.
Biden and Sanders will still appear – but audience members and press will be absent.
Both men also had plans to address voters who went to the polls as part of ‘Super Tuesday 2’ from Ohio – a traditional swing state where voters cast ballots a week from now. Biden will address Tuesday night’s results from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – where his campaign is headquartered – instead.
As the coronavirus outbreak grows – and with Sanders, Biden and Trump all in their 70s, a group that is in more danger of dying if they contract the virus – there had already been chatter in Washington if campaign events should go on.
For Sanders the result could be disastrous, as the Vermont senator uses rally attendance to make the point that he’s a stronger candidate to go up against Trump than Biden, who attracts far fewer supporters in the flesh.
Trump, too, could see his re-election chances dwindle if he’s kept off the campaign trail for long.
Bernie Sanders did campaign Tuesday during the day, visiting a polling location at Warren E. Bow Elementary School in Detroit, Michigan
Word of Sanders’ cancellation came first.
‘Out of concern for public health and safety, we are canceling tonight’s rally in Cleveland,’ a Sanders spokesperson said. ‘We are heeding the public warnings from Ohio state officials, who have communicated concern about holding large, indoor events during the coronavirus outbreak.’ The spokesperson added that ‘All future Bernie 2020 events will be evaluated on a case by case basis.’
The Daily Beast then reported that Biden’s Ohio event was also off.
‘In accordance with guidance from public officials and out of an abundance of caution, our rally in Cleveland, Ohio tonight is cancelled. We will continue to consult with public health officials and public health guidance and make announcements about future events in the coming days,’ said Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, confirming the news to reporters.
The coronavirus cancellations come as Sanders is trying to grab some of the momentum back from Biden who’s now the delegate leader in the Democratic primary race.
In 10 days’ time, Biden has turned around his entire campaign – winning South Carolina, beating Sanders in 10 of 14 states on ‘Super Tuesday’ and getting a flurry of endorsements – including from ex-rivals Michael Bloomberg, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.
With Biden cementing his frontrunner status, Sanders needs something to change the narrative and he’s hoping Michigan – like the state did in 2016 – will give him that opportunity.
Exit polls were not encouraging for Sanders when voters in Michigan were asked who they trusted to handle a national crisis. Fifty-one per cent said Biden, while 32 per cent said Sanders. In Missouri the numbers were even worse wtih 61 per cent saying Biden and 27 per cent pointing to Sanders, according to CBS News.
In Washington state, 46 per cent chose Biden, while 27 per cent said Sanders.
In total, voters from six states headed to the polls Tuesday.
In 2016, Sanders was down by an average of 21.4 points to Hillary Clinton in Michigan polls when his surprise win – by just 1.4 per cent – poured new energy into his campaign.
In 2020, the Real Clear Politics polling average shows Sanders down by 22.4 points to Biden in Michigan.
That hasn’t deterred Sanders, who’s spent the last few days in the state.
On Friday, he held a Detroit rally with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who represents the city in Congress and is one of the four members of the so-called Democratic ‘squad.’
On Saturday, he held a town hall on ‘racial and economic justice’ in Flint, Michigan, known for its water troubles.
Joe Biden (center left) has amassed a number of big endorsements since his South Carolina primary win 10 days ago including those from Kamala Harris (left), Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (center right) and Cory Booker. Harris and Booker, both U.S. senators, already had dropped out of the presidential race
Bernie Sanders (right), pointing a finger at Fox News Channel’s Martha MacCallum (left) and Bret Baier (center), has been dedicating the last few days to campaigning in Michigan. He participated in a Fox News Town Hall in Detroit Monday night
Bernie Sanders also held a coronavirus public health roundtable in Detroit, Michigan on Monday as he focused heavily on the state. Sanders won it by just 1.4 per cent in 2016, after being down 21.4 points in the polls to Hillary Clinton
Joe Biden knows that stopping Bernie Sanders in Michigan means the nomination could be his. Here he’s photographed touring a Fiat Chrysler plant in Detroit Tuesday, where he got into an altercation with a voter about his Second Amendment stance
On Sunday, he was joined on the campaign trail again by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another member of the ‘squad.’ They rallied together in Ann Arbor, the home of the University of Michigan.
Then on Monday in Detroit, Sanders held a coronavirus town hall with public health experts, among other events.
Talking to Chris Cuomo on CNN Monday night, Sanders predicted he could win the state again. He also argued that his large, loud crowd meant he would be best positioned to take on President Trump in the general election.
‘Does anyone really believe, let me throw it out to you, you know this stuff, that a campain like Joe’s, which is frankly the same-old, same-old establishment politics, supported by the wealthy, and they got all the governors and senators supporting them, does anybody really think that that is going to be the campaign of excitement and energy that’s going to grow the base that we need to defeat Trump?’ Sanders mused. ‘I don’t think so.’
But Democrats, in an almost unprecedented way, have gotten behind Biden.
And the former vice president is aware that if he wins Michigan, he’s basically ended the race for Sanders.
On Monday night, he held his own Detroit rally where he held hands with Harris and Booker – who made their endorsements official – and the state’s governor, the up-and-coming Gretchen Whitmer.
But the rally wasn’t without drama, as a group of anti-NAFTA protesters heckled the vice president.
He told his crowd the ‘Bernie Bros are here.’
Another larger group of pro-Green New Deal activists – a concept Sanders supports – – also showed up. Politico reported that Biden’s senior adviser Symone Sanders, who was Bernie Sanders’ 2016 press secretary, got hit in the head with an iPad and knocked down. She wasn’t injured.
Symone Sanders also wrestled a Vegan activist off the stage at Biden’s ‘Super Tuesday’ primary night event in Los Angeles, California last week. It wasn’t personal to Biden, as protesters from the same group interrupted an Elizabeth Warren event in Los Angeles the night before.
Biden also got into a back-and-forth with Michigan voters Tuesday morning as he toured a Fiat Chrysler plant in Detroit. ‘You’re full of s*** man,’ Biden told a plant worker who accused him of ‘actively trying to end our Second Amendment right,’ according to video of the incident from CBS News. He told another worker to ‘shush’ as he explained his point.
Beyond Michigan, ‘Super Tuesday 2,’ as it’s been nicknamed, will include votes from Missouri, Mississippi, Idaho, North Dakota and Washington state.
While not a lot of polling has been conducted in Washington, Sanders’ campaign could get a boost there.
However, he won’t have the same advantage he did in 2016, as Washington is holding a primary Tuesday instead of a caucus.
Four years ago when Democrats caucused for their presidential pick, Sanders won overwhelmingly – 72.7 per cent to Clinton’s 27.1 per cent.
Now in the state, Biden has had a slight lead in polls taken this month, while Sanders was leading in February surveys.
Also, just like on Super Tuesday when Sanders eventually won the biggest delegate prize – California – the narrative for the night had already been set, that Biden was the big winner.
Additionally, Washington state also has mail-in balloting, which means results could be slow to come in.
A big outstanding question mark for ‘Super Tuesday 2’ is where Warren’s voters will find a home.
President Trump – trying to sow discord among the Democrats – blamed Warren for Sanders’ underwhelming Super Tuesday showing. ‘Our modern day Pocahontas won’t go down in history as a winner, but she may very well go down as the all time great SPOILER!’ Trump tweeted Wednesday.
The president suggested that while moderates like Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, who dropped out and endorsed Biden before Super Tuesday, cleared the way for the former veep, Warren paid no such courtesy to Sanders, a fellow progressive.
So far she hasn’t gotten behind either Sanders nor Biden.
On Tuesday, Sanders surrogates continued to press the point.
‘I deeply respect @Ewarren,’ tweeted New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, one of the only ex-2020 hopefuls to have endorsed Sanders. ‘Our nation + our party are better + more progressive because of her leadership. Now our progressive movement needs her more than ever.’
‘Senator, if the shoe was on the other foot @BernieSanders would have endorsed you already. Please join us!’ de Blasio wrote.
As the votes come in Tuesday night, Biden and Sanders were already looking ahead, having both planned the now-canceled events in Ohio.
Voters in Ohio – along with Arizona, Florida and Illinois – head to the polls in a week.
And the two remaining mainstream candidates – as Tulsi Gabbard is still technically in the race – are suppoed to debate each other in Phoenix, Arizona Sunday night.