The biggest voting day of the Democratic presidential primary campaign has ended in a two-person race between former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. On Super Tuesday, Biden swept the South and Midwest, winning Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas, propelled by a huge majority of African-American votes in Southern states. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders won his home state of Vermont and scored victories in the West, winning Colorado and Utah. And according to the Associated Press, Sanders won the grand prize of the night, California, with significant Latinx support. Biden’s strong showing came after the Democratic Party establishment consolidated around the former vice president, with Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg dropping out in recent days and throwing their support behind Biden. This is Joe Biden speaking in Los Angeles last night.
Joe Biden: “I’m here to report we are very much alive! And make no mistake about it: This campaign will send Donald Trump packing. This campaign is taking off! Join us!”
Senator Bernie Sanders’s biggest win came in California, where Latinx voters account for nearly 40% of the population. He spoke last night from his home state of Vermont.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: “We have two major goals in front of us, and they are directly related. First, we must beat a president who apparently has never read the Constitution of the United States, a president who thinks we should be an autocracy, not a democracy. But second of all, we need a movement and are developing a movement of black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian-American, gay and straight, of people who are making it clear every day they will not tolerate the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality we are experiencing.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren finished in third place in her home state of Massachusetts. Billionaire and former Republican New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg said he planned to reassess his candidacy, after he spent more than a half-billion dollars to score just one victory — in American Samoa, where he won five delegates. Tulsi Gabbard picked up one delegate in American Samoa.
