This article originally appeared at WALReader.com, the website of our magazine.
Now that Super Tuesday is almost completely over (the final CA totals likely won’t be known for days), it’s safe to say that Biden overwhelmingly won.
Here’s a look at the Democratic primary race so far:
Red/pink = Biden
(At the time of writing, CA was still counting votes but called for Sanders, and ME was still counting votes but Biden had a slight lead.)
Here are some key takeaways from last night’s elections:
1. Bernie is the Walking Dead
Bernie’s hopes for being the Democratic nominee in June (slight as they were) died last night, even though he doesn’t realize it yet.
This whole campaign, Bernie’s promised to rally disaffected non-voters, rev up youth turnout to the polls, and unite the labor vote – none of those things have happened in any meaningful way. Bernie’s base is loyal to the death, but it’s not growing.
At time of writing, Biden has overtaken Bernie both in the popular vote and total delegate counts. Bernie’s campaign ran into massive wall last night and learned that his “revolution” wasn’t nearly as powerful or large as he tricked his supporters (and himself) into believing.
2. Biden Isn’t Just a Regional Candidate
Biden’s strategy to secure the nomination always relied heavily on dominating the so-called SEC Primary, the states in the Southeast. A lot of pundits speculated that his strategy relied too heavily on the SEC states though, and that he would fail to gain traction in are regions (especially heavily majority-white states).
His surprise wins in Minnesota, Massachusetts, and (probably) Maine dashes that theory. As Van Jones said, in 72 hours Joe Biden went from being a joke to a juggernaut.
3. Warren is Bernie’s Kryptonite
By staying in the race, Warren is mortally wounding Bernie’s campaign for very little gain of her own.
As the Jacobin pointed out earlier this week, the right half of Warren’s support had already peeled away from her to one of the more moderate candidates. The only supporters she has left (outside of some moderates simply seeking to nominate a woman) are overwhelmingly left and many would likely rally to Sanders if she dropped out.
The oddest part about her refusal to concede is that she’s not even racking up that many delegates. She placed a distant third in her home start and only barely reached the 15% viability threshold in a few other Super Tuesday elections. She’s not going to be a force to contend with in a potential brokered convention.
4. Bloomberg Fizzled Out
While you could make a reasonable argument that Bloomberg possibly cost Biden California (and maybe Colorado), overall the potential titan of a Bloomberg conquest was over-hyped.
He performed well in a few states (mainly Tennessee and Arkansas), but overall his entire campaign was just a massive waste of $500 million.
5. Never-Trumpers, Rejoice!
As I’ve written before, I am not a fan of Biden and I will not vote for him in this primary or the general election.
That being said, I ardently believe that he is the best Democrat to take on Trump in November, and given the choice between Biden and Trump, Joe is a clear “lesser evil”.
Remember that “beating Trump” really only means winning a few thousand more votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina than Clinton did in 2016. With Biden’s strong union and African-American support, he can do that. Bernie in the other hand has always struggled with African-American voters and his adamant calls to totally ban fracking make his campaign DOA in a PA general election.
6. Bonus!
In all the noise around the Democratic elections yesterday, many forgot that there were several Republican primaries also.
Just in case anyone was wondering, Bill Weld’s Republican candidacy time outs Trump from the GOP’s nomination is still failing.
