Sanders secures big win in Nevada round
WASHINGTON: Senator Bernie Sanders secured an emphatic win in Nevada on Saturday, consolidating his status as the front-runner in the 2020 Democratic nomination race. Former US vice-president Joe Biden finished a distant second.
The win in Nevada was crucial for Sanders as it is racially and ethnically more diverse than predominantly white Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states in the 2020 nomination race that he tied and then narrowly won. It demonstrated his expanding base and appeal, which will be tested in the coming contests.
“We are bringing our people together,” Sanders said in his victory speech. “We have brought together a multigenerational, multiracial coalition which is not only going to win in Nevada, it’s going to sweep this country.”
Next up is South Carolina, a state predominantly Africanamerican, and which has been nursed by Biden as his firewall. Biden has polled very well among the community in the state and outside, and is expecting to win there to turn his fortunes around.
Loyally serving former US president Barack Obama as his vice-president for two terms has a lot to do with it, and Biden has built on it by embracing his former boss’s legacy, minus the warts, his critics observed.
The biggest prize, however, for the hopefuls is the Super Tuesday primaries of March, when 14 states hold their primaries and caucuses, with the largest trove of delegates up for grabs.
TALIBAN WANT PEACE DEAL WITH US: TRUMP
The Taliban are “tired” of fighting and want to make a peace deal with the US, President Donald Trump said on Sunday as he left for his maiden visit to India.
Trump said at the White House that the time has come for US troops to “come home”. He said, “We’ve been over there 19 years. We think they want to make a deal. We want to make a deal. I think it’s going to work out.”