NewsBite

Updated

Super Tuesday live results: Biden, Sanders compete in 14 states at once

The votes have been cast in the most pivotal day of the US presidential race so far, and the results are nothing short of stunning.

Sam Clench in Sydney and Megan Palin in New York
less than 2 min read
March 3, 2020 - 9:18PM
Super Tuesday wrap-up: The winners and losers

Joe Biden has stunned the political world in the United States, surging to a series of unlikely wins on Super Tuesday.

Fourteen states voted today, marking a sharp acceleration in the race to become the Democratic Party's presidential nominee.

Going into Super Tuesday, Mr Biden's goal was to stop left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders from compiling an unassailable lead. Instead, the former vice president took the lead himself, dominating across much of the electoral map and winning several states he had not even campaigned in.

He racked up particularly shocking victories in Massachusetts, the home state of fellow candidate Elizabeth Warren, and Minnesota, which Mr Sanders won against Hillary Clinton four years ago.

Mr Sanders did enjoy a couple of bright spots, especially in delegate-rich California, where he was leading comfortably with much of the vote still to be counted.

Ms Warren and billionaire candidate Michael Bloomberg both failed to win a single state.

Read on for all the latest news - and fallout - from a dramatic Super Tuesday.

Updates

Summing up Super Tuesday

That is where we'll close off our live coverage of the Super Tuesday results.

It has been an astonishingly successful day for former vice president Joe Biden. He's won nine states – Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Mr Biden is also leading in Maine, though for now at least, that state remains too close to call.

Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, has won four states – California, Colorado, Utah and Vermont.

We're still waiting for more than half the votes to be counted in California, where the size of Mr Sanders' win is more important than the result itself. That count will be completed over the coming days.

And we're also waiting for Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg to decide whether it's worth staying in the race after their disappointing performances.

We'll bring you that news when it happens.

Bloomberg considering his position

MSNBC reports Michael Bloomberg has flown from Florida back to New York, where he will speak to advisers and consider whether or not he should stay in the race.

The answer seems pretty damn obvious.

'It's a lie': Pushback against Bernie

A little earlier, we highlighted Bernie Sanders surrogate Marianne Williamson, who labelled the consolidation of moderate Democratic support around Joe Biden a "coup".

Mr Sanders himself put the same idea much more delicately in his speech tonight, when he spoke about running against the "political establishment".

The subtext of both of their words is simple enough to grasp – the Democratic Party establishment is trying to take the nomination away from him.

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, who was a prominent Republican before Donald Trump came along, rubbished that claim on air today.

"It's a lie. I mean, it's a lie," Wallace said.

"Listen – and I say this as a dispassionate former Republican who watched my party sort of implode around fake truths and false grievances. The establishment had nothing to do with Joe Biden's victory.

"He's flat broke. He has not a single ad on the air. He isn't advertising in any Super Tuesday states!

"His victory is owed to African-American voters, male and female, of every age, in South Carolina, full stop.

"Now, the momentum he has today, he can share credit for that with Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg. Beto O'Rourke gave a remarkable speech. And a few others.

"But the Democratic establishment had essentially turned their back on Joe Biden before Saturday night."

Biden takes the lead in Texas

With two-thirds of the vote counted in Texas, Joe Biden has now taken the lead, and is gradually pulling further ahead.

This is consistent with his performance in several other states, where early votes were counted first.

When the count proceeds to ballots cast on election day – after his post-South Carolina surge started – he performs much better.

Picture: AP

Biden's revival labelled a 'coup'

Self-help author and former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, who for some reason is being used as an official surrogate for the Sanders campaign despite being a noted kook, has labelled moderate Democrats' consolidation behind Joe Biden "a coup".

How very Trumpian.

She deleted the tweet shortly after posting it, but we captured a screenshot for posterity.

So, what was she talking about? What happened yesterday?

Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar were competing with Mr Biden and Mr Sanders for the nomination until the aftermath of this week's South Carolina primary, which Mr Biden won by a mile.

Both concluded they no longer had any path to the nomination, and dropped out of the race.

After doing so, they each endorsed Mr Biden yesterday, saying he was the candidate best placed to beat Mr Sanders and then, in the general election, Mr Trump.

In other words, Mr Buttigieg and Ms Klobuchar did what Donald Trump's rivals for the Republican nomination failed to do four years ago – they concluded the only way to defeat Mr Sanders was to stop fracturing moderate voters' support, and put their own ambition aside, throwing their weight behind one standard bearer.

Mr Biden also got the endorsement of Beto O'Rourke, a former presidential candidate popular in Texas, who dropped out in November.

That's it. The rest of the supposed "coup" here consists of millions of Super Tuesday voters picking Mr Biden over Mr Sanders.

This sort of language is a huge, huge worry for the Democratic Party, which is already terrified of Mr Sanders' voters refusing to support anyone other than their guy against Mr Trump in the general election.

And it reinforces the message coming from Mr Trump himself, that the Democratic Party is trying to "steal" the nomination from Mr Sanders.

Watch this space.

Sanders surrogate turns on Warren

Here we see one of Bernie Sanders' supporters, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, throwing shade at Elizabeth Warren for staying in the race.

She has a point. The decisions from Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar to drop out and endorse Joe Biden yesterday have certainly helped him rack up all these wins.

The counterpoint, of course, is that Mr Biden still had to deal with Michael Bloomberg today.

Say Ms Warren and Mr Bloomberg both get out this week. Who does that help more? It's hard to say.

The two biggest states

Let's take a look at the count in the two biggest states, California and Texas.

First California, which has already been declared for Bernie Sanders. You might be surprised by how well Michael Bloomberg is doing there, with 7 per cent of precincts reporting.

Also, note that Pete Buttigieg is ahead of Elizabeth Warren, even though he dropped out of the race two days ago.

The thing to keep in mind here is that early votes are counted first. That means the results reported so far are almost entirely based on votes cast before Joe Biden's surge over the last 72 hours.

So, as more results come in, you can expect Mr Biden to pass Mr Bloomberg.

Mr Sanders' share of the vote should also go up, as older voters (who don't favour him) are far more likely to vote early than young voters (who form of the core of his support).

We won't have a full count in California for days, or maybe even weeks.

Over in Texas, almost half the vote has now been counted, and Mr Biden has pulled pretty much level with Mr Sanders.

The result here could be pretty important. If Mr Sanders can squeak to victory in the two most populous and significant states, he can claim some degree of success on Super Tuesday.

Should Mr Biden win Texas, that argument becomes much harder.

'Never seen anything like it'

CNN anchor Jake Tapper just gave a pretty good, concise summary of Joe Biden's extraordinary performance.

"Joe Biden did not campaign in Massachusetts. I don't think he campaigned in Minnesota either. He's winning states that he didn't even attempt to win," Tapper said, a little incredulously.

His colleague Dana Bash added that Mr Biden had also won Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma despite never campaigning in any of them.

Former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe – who has endorsed Mr Biden – said he was stunned by the scale of his win in the state.

"I've been helping the party for a very long time. I have never in my life seen anything like what we're seeing tonight," he said.

"You've got to understand, a week ago, Joe Biden was dead. Then, the issue, could he win any states? Then he could win maybe some of the southern states.

"But the idea that we're sitting here tonight, he's won Minnesota, he's won Massachusetts, with no money! I cannot stress this point. No staff, really. No money.

"In Virginia, not a single television ad was purchased by the Biden campaign. Zero TV ads. Nothing.

"It's extraordinary, what's happened."

Political analyst Van Jones echoed Mr McAuliffe's sentiments.

"We've seen, in a 72-hour period, Joe Biden go from being a joke to a juggernaut. That's what happened. And I've not seen anything like this, ever," Jones said.

"To come from this far back with no money, no machine, no organisation, just based on this idea that he can get it done. It's unbelievable."

More related stories

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/super-tuesday-joe-biden-gets-boost-from-former-rivals-ahead-of-crucial-primaries/live-coverage/d3921a23bfd4a5c6c20c2b04c7988cec