The top takeaways from Super Tuesday

Joe Biden has served notice that his triumph in South Carolina was no fluke, in what is shaping up to be a protracted fight with Bernie Sanders.

Democratic presidential hopeful former vice president Joe Biden flanked by with his wife Jill, left, and sister Valerie Biden Owens. Picture: AFP

Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday victories served notice that his triumph in South Carolina was no fluke and could form the basis of a competitive coalition of voters in what is shaping up to be a protracted fight with Bernie Sanders.

The former vice president, once staggered by losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, stormed back with wins in at least eight states, including delegate-rich North Carolina and Virginia.

Mr Sanders triumphed in California, the night’s biggest delegate prize, as well as Colorado, Utah and his home state of Vermont, while Texas looked too close to call. But Mr Biden captured Minnesota, a day after receiving the endorsement of onetime rival Senator Amy Klobuchar, and Oklahoma — two states that Mr. Sanders carried in his 2016 campaign.

Super Tuesday served as a disappointment for former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren, who faced daunting questions about the futures of their campaigns.

Mr. Bloomberg only managed to snatch victory in American Samoa, despite his freewheeling campaign spending, while Ms. Warren lost her home state of Massachusetts, trailing both Mr Biden and Mr Sanders.

Here are the main takeaways from Super Tuesday.

The Biden Coalition

Exit polls showed Mr Biden assembling a winning coalition that included African-Americans, suburban voters and older voters, allowing him to argue he could best unite the party against Republican President Trump.

Mr Sanders performed well with liberal voters and voters under age 30, exit polls showed, but his poor performance in the South showed the limits to his appeal with African-Americans and moderate voters. Mr Biden was victorious in Tennessee and Alabama, and also notched a win in Oklahoma, despite never visiting the state during his campaign.

About half of Democratic primary voters in Virginia and Oklahoma said they made their decision within the past few days, and Mr Biden won roughly 6 in 10 of those voters in both states. Late-deciders represented a smaller proportion of the vote in North Carolina and Alabama, but he also had the largest share of those voters there.

Sanders’s Setback

Mr Sanders won three of the first four early voting states and showed strength with Latino voters in Nevada, liberals and young people.

But Mr Biden’s comeback in South Carolina exposed Mr Sanders’s struggles with black voters, and Tuesday night’s results raised questions about whether the self-described democratic socialist could garner broad support in suburban regions viewed as critical in the general election against Mr Trump, including in Virginia near Washington, D.C., in Charlotte, N.C., and Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

Bloomberg or Bust

For a billionaire who has long thrived on data, Mr Bloomberg couldn’t have been pleased with his Super Tuesday return on investment. He spent about $215 million in advertising in the 14 states but was on pace to only win in American Samoa.

Mr Bloomberg was certain to win delegates, but Super Tuesday showed that he is unlikely to become the main alternative to Mr Sanders, even though he tried to displace Mr Biden during the former vice president’s struggles.

Mr Bloomberg campaigned extensively in the South, hoping to win over black voters and others in states such as North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee that might otherwise be drawn to Mr Biden.

But Mr Bloomberg lost every Super Tuesday state in which he competed and was likely to encounter pressure to drop out and devote his vast resources and deep campaign operation to help Mr Biden.

Home-State Loss

Ms. Warren entered the night searching for an elusive first victory and facing a home-state challenge from Mr Sanders. She appeared to come up empty-handed on both counts.

Mr Biden won the state and Mr Sanders, who staged rallies in Boston and Springfield in the days before the primary, was also leading Ms. Warren in Massachusetts, undercutting her case that she could become a consensus choice if none of the candidates can claim a majority of the delegates by June.

She is projected to pick up delegates, which could give her leverage in a drawn-out fight for the nomination. But the promises of her campaign, when she led some national polls last fall, seem long ago.