Biden tacks on Maine to big comeback haul

Joe Biden claimed victory in Maine’s razor-thin primary Wednesday, extending his Super Tuesday surge that reclaimed his status as a frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Maine primary was the last of Tuesday’s 14 contests that remained too close to call overnight. By Wednesday afternoon, Biden had been deemed the election’s winner, edging out Bernie Sanders by about 1% of the vote.

Maine marked Biden’s 10th Super Tuesday win and netted him at least another 11 delegates.

Speaking at a campaign office in Los Angeles (photo), the former vice president pledged his electoral comeback was only getting started.

“Those of you who have been knocked down, those of you who have been counted out, this is your campaign,” Biden said.

Sanders, speaking at his campaign headquarters in Vermont, grumbled over low turnout among young voters and acknowledged he had hoped for a stronger showing Tuesday.

“We have not done as well in bringing young people into the process. It is not easy,” the left-wing senator said. “Everybody knows that young people do not vote in the kind of numbers that older people vote.”

Super Tuesday effectively transformed the Democratic race into a two-man battle between Biden and Sanders.

With Mike Bloomberg dropping out Wednesday and endorsing Biden, Elizabeth Warren remains the only other candidate in the race. But the Massachusetts senator lost even her own home state primary Tuesday and has yet to claim victory in a single presidential contest.

She’s facing pressure to drop out and endorse Sanders, a fellow progressive. Advisers said she spent Wednesday assessing her campaign.

Sanders scored Tuesday’s biggest delegate prize by winning California. He also won Utah, Colorado and his native Vermont.

However, Biden surged past Sanders in several states that the Vermont senator had hoped he could count on, including Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas.

Sanders went on the offensive in the wake of the disappointing results and ripped Biden as a corporate Democrat beholden to his billionaire donors.

“Does anyone seriously believe that a president backed by the corporate world is going to bring about the changes in this country that working families and the middle class and lower-income people desperately need?” Sanders said at his campaign headquarters.

Results were still being tabulated in California and other states Wednesday, though it appeared all but certain that Biden and Sanders would be neck-and-neck when all was said and done.

With the Super Tuesday dust settling, the race now shifts focus to the Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington primaries on Tuesday.

President Trump, who has spewed most of his vitriol in Bloomberg’s direction in recent weeks, turned his attention to Biden after the billionaire ex-mayor endorsed him.

“Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joe’s campaign, hoping to save face,” Trump tweeted. “It won’t work!”