U.S. presidential election race in uncharted waters

There’s nothing normal about this year’s U.S. presidential election.

While Americans are slated to go to the polls this November to vote in federal, state and local contests, no one knows where the fight against COVID-19 will be on Nov. 3.

The widespread concern, warnings against large gatherings and preventative shutdowns due to the coronavirus have already delayed a number of state primaries.

The uncertainties have also thrown both Democratic and Republican campaigns into turmoil. Here’s what we do know.

After convincing wins in three Democratic primaries on Tuesday, former vice president Joe Biden has built a seemingly insurmountable lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for their party’s nomination.

Biden now has 1,180 committed delegates, more than all other Democratic candidates combined and halfway to the 1,991 he needs to secure the nomination. Sanders has 885.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump rolled up Republican primaries Tuesday, clinching his party’s 2020 nomination, which was never in doubt.

Now things get complicated.

Biden wants Sanders to concede and throw his considerable support behind the former vice president’s tussle with Trump this fall.

But Sanders seems in no rush to do that. The next primaries aren’t until April, if not delayed by the virus. Four years ago, the Vermont senator refused to concede even when badly trailing the eventual nominee, Hillary Clinton.

If Sanders holds on, Biden must continue to campaign, even in subdued fashion, drawing on financial resources he’d prefer to save for the fight against Trump.

Perhaps a bigger concern for Biden is whether Sanders’ younger, left-leaning progressive supporters will back the former vice president in numbers this November.

The refusal of Sanders’ backers to rally behind Clinton in 2016 — many sitting out the vote — contributed to her defeat. Enthusiasm for Biden among the Bernie Bros seems muted.

Biden’s other headache is that Trump has amassed a much bigger war chest for attack ads. And the presumptive Democratic nominee can’t fundraise as he’d like, with the virus making big rallies untenable.

But Trump’s got problems, too.

The president can’t overuse his financial advantage to attack Biden now, or he’d look crassly political at a time of crisis.

Trump, a polarizing figure, knows he’ll be judged — when ballots are cast — by how well the country gets through the pandemic. He hasn’t looked good thus far, but the election’s still eight months away.

Whatever happens, one’s thing’s certain. With Trump 73 and Biden 78, whomever wins will become the oldest man ever to take the oath of office to become president of the United States.