SUPER TWO-DAY
Dem race essentially down to Sanders vs. Biden as former VP builds momentum with wins across the country while Bernie captures big prize of California
WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders seized Super Tuesday’s biggest prize with a victory in California, while a resurgent Joe Biden scored wins across the country with the backing of a diverse coalition as the Democratic Party’s once-crowded presidential field transformed into a two-man contest.
And Biden and Sanders were locked in a dead heat in Texas, the second-biggest trophy of the night, according to CNN; Biden held a small lead with about 63% of precincts reporting.
“They don’t call it Super Tuesday for nothing,’’ Biden told cheering supporters in California before that state’s results were in. “It’s still early, but things are looking awful, awful good.”
The former vice president reminded his cheering supporters of the pundits and experts who had written off his campaign just days ago.
“We are very much alive,” Biden said. “And make no mistake, this campaign will send Donald Trump packing. This campaign is taking off.”
Undaunted, Sanders told his supporters across the country in Vermont that he would ultimately prevail, saying he was not only taking on the corporate interests but the political establishment.
“Tonight, I tell you with absolute confidence that we’re going to win the Democratic nomination, and we are going to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of this country,” Sanders said minutes before Biden spoke on the West Coast.
It was increasingly looking like a two-man race.
Mike Bloomberg’s sole victory of the night was in the territory of American Samoa. And Elizabeth Warren finished third in her home state of Massachusetts.
Biden and Sanders, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for America’s future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the party’s 2020 presidential nomination fight.
The clash between Biden and Sanders, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, peaked on a day that could determine whether the Democratic battle will stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner.
The former vice president and the threeterm senator took aim at each other from dueling victory speeches separated by 2,500 miles Tuesday night.
“People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement,” Biden charged in Los
Angeles, knocking one of Sanders’ signature lines.
And without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from a victory speech in Burlington, Vermont.
“You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics,” Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. “This will become a contrast in ideas.”
He added: “One of us in this race led the opposition to the war in Iraq,” the Vermont senator declared. “You are looking at him. Another candidate voted for the war in Iraq.”
As for Bloomberg, the billionaire former
New York mayor, who threw more than a half a billion dollars into the Super Tuesday states, will reassess his campaign on Wednesday, according to a person close to his operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
Warren had yet to post any early wins and lost her home state of Massachusetts to Biden.
Sanders, a Vermont senator, opened the night as the undisputed Democratic frontrunner. He claimed decisive victories in his home state of Vermont, as well as California, Utah and Colorado. Yet Biden also scored wins in Warren’s native Oklahoma and a swath of Southern states including Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, signaling he was cementing his status as the standard-bearer for the Dem