Biden dominates the South on Super Tuesday

It’s now a two-man race.

Former Vice President Joe Biden was a big winner on Super Tuesday, racking up wins in every Southern state as well as Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Minnesota. Biden also won U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s home state of Massachusetts, as millions of voters cast their ballots in a series of high-stakes Super Tuesday primary contests as Democrats hurtle toward a November rematch with President Donald Trump.

But U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders won California, Super Tuesday’s biggest prize, transforming the once-crowded Democratic field into a two-man race.

emocratic presidential campaign in recent days. Bernie Sanders countered with wins in his home state of Vermont, Colorado and Utah, as the race shifted west late Tuesday night.

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Biden took Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma and the battleground states of North Carolina and Virginia, a strong showing as 14 states went to the polls across the nation. Still, results were unclear in the two top prizes, Texas and California — meaning the night's biggest winner remained to be determined.

Minnesota helped Biden show strength in the upper Midwest, and Oklahoma added further geographic variety — but his stronghold remained the Deep South. His victories in heavily African American states complemented the former vice president's resounding win in last weekend's South Carolina primary.

Virginia was especially key, however, because Sanders, a Vermont senator, and billionaire former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg heavily contested it over the past week.

According to the Associated Press, Bloomberg will reportedly reassess on Wednesday whether he should stay in the race after getting disappointing results in Super Tuesday primaries despite spending more than a half billion dollars on his three-month campaign.

A person close to the Bloomberg campaign confirmed the deliberations. Bloomberg flew back to New York after campaigning Tuesday in Florida, a state that votes March 17 and where he's already spent millions.

Sanders grabbed an early home-state win in Vermont, with all east coast polls closing at 8 p.m. EST except for Tennessee. Some polls in the Volunteer State were ordered to extend voting hours in the wake of several deadly tornadoes.

Oklahoma was called for Biden immediately after polls closed at 9 p.m., as was Colorado for Sanders. Virginia, with its 99 delegates, has been considered a tossup state that is increasingly moving to the left.Bloomberg won America Samoa’s five delegates.

Super Tuesday may also intensify pressure on Warren, who finished third in her home state of Massachusetts to rethink her campaign and may ultimately result in the race winnowing to Biden and Sanders, two white men in their late 70s, a dramatic evolution for a Democratic field once celebrated for so many women and candidates of color.

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Bloomberg was already looking beyond the primary to the November election against Trump, who racked up easy victories in lightly contested Republican primaries across the country.

“We have the resources to beat Trump in swing states that Democrats lost in 2016,” he said Tuesday night while campaigning in Florida.

Sanders began the day as the Democrats’ undisputed presidential front-runner, backed by a coalition of energized liberals, young voters and Latinos. The progressive was fighting to beat back the sudden rise of Biden, who seized a wave of new support from some of his former Democratic presidential rivals just hours before polls opened in his quest to lead the party’s moderate wing.

»MORE: What’s at stake on Super Tuesday

The clash between the two men, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, peaked on a day that could determine whether the Democrats’ 2020 nomination fight will stretch all the way to the party’s July convention or be decided much sooner.

The day was also testing the strength of Bloomberg, who was appearing on a presidential ballot for the first time after skipping all four contests last month.

Bloomberg banked on more than half a billion dollars in advertising and ground operations in an unorthodox and untested strategy that relied on Biden’s perceived weaknesses earlier in the year. Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren loomed as potential spoilers as the candidates jockeyed to cross the voting threshold to secure delegates, a move that could prolong the nominating battle.

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The Democratic race has shifted dramatically over the past three days as Biden capitalized on his commanding South Carolina victory to persuade anxious establishment allies to rally behind his campaign. Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg abruptly ended their campaigns and endorsed Biden, though their late departures meant their names will still appear on ballots.

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