Writing’s on the wall for Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg

The presidential campaigns of Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg were in serious doubt after their poor Super Tuesday performances.

Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren campaigning in Detroit, Michigan, on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

The presidential campaigns of Elizabeth Warren and billionaire Michael Bloomberg were in serious doubt after their poor performances in the Super Tuesday primaries.

Senator Warren’s disappointing showing was highlighted by a third-place finish in her home state of Massachusetts — won by Joe Biden — and marked a striking­ collapse for the one-time darling of progressives who was known for having a plan for nearly everything.

After mediocre showings in the first four contests, where she did not finish higher than third place, Tuesday’s results could speed her exit from the race for the Democratic nomination.

Senator Warren appeared set on remaining in the race, at least for now. Speaking to supporters in Detroit ahead of next week’s Michigan primary, she introduced herself as “the woman who’s going to beat Donald Trump”.

She ­encouraged supporters to tune out the results and vote for the person they believed would be the best president.

The senator’s campaign had all the early markers of success — robust­ poll numbers, impressive fundraising and a national organisation — but she was squeezed out by Bernie Sanders, who had an immovab­le base of support among progressives she needed to win over.

Senator Warren, 70, appeared to hit her stride in the middle of last year as she hammered the idea that more moderate Democratic candidates, including Mr Biden, weren’t ambitious enough to roll back Mr Trump’s policies and were too reliant on political consultant­s and fickle polling.

But she was unable to consolidate the support of the Democratic Party’s most liberal wing against the race’s other top progressiv­e, Senator Sanders.

Both support universal, government-sponsored healthcare, tuition-free public college and aggressi­ve ­climate change fighting measures while forgoing big fund­raisers in favour of small donations fuelled by the internet.

A person close to Mr Bloomberg’s campaign confirmed the former New York mayor would reconsider­ his campaign’s future on Thursday AEDT.

Mr Bloomberg spent sums never before seen in political campaig­n history since entering the race in November. Millions of dollars went toward states such as Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee — all three of which Mr Biden won handily on Tuesday.

The 14 states that voted on Tuesday were the first in which Mr Bloomberg’s name appeared on the ballot, after he skipped the first four voting states. The money ­allowed him to campaign in the Super Tuesday states in ways his opponents could only dream of. He was the only candidate on air in all 14 states, and had staff on the ground in every state and dropped nearly $US180m ($274m) on television advertising alone in the those states.

But the onslaught of ads seemed unable to make up for damage done by allegations of sexism and racism, and non-disclosure agreements that women who worked for his company had signed preventing them from speaking out.

AP