Biden romps in second Tuesday primaries

Former Vice President Joe Biden fortified his lead for the Democratic nomination winning states that Bernie Sanders took in 2016 and adding to his delegate advantage.

As of midnight on the East Coast Biden has won Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi and leads in Idaho.

Sanders is clinging to a 0.2% lead in Washington and is ahead by 14 points in North Dakota but with only 10% counted.  In 2016 Sanders won Michigan and North Dakota and he needed wins tonight to hope to catch Biden in the delegate count.

Michigan had a third of the 352 delegates up for award this evening and the Sanders campaign had been hoping for a narrow win like 2016.

Next week the race moves to four states Illinois, Ohio, Florida and Arizona whose votes apportion 577 delegates. If Biden wins these elections the race could be all but over as there would be almost no chance that Sanders could win enough of the remaining delegates to overtake Biden.

The Democratic Party has begun to organize around the Biden candidacy following his victories in 10 of 14 contests in the Super Tuesday primaries. Failed competitors Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Yang have endorsed Biden.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren who exited the race last week after coming in third in her home state said today that she is not ready to make an endorsement.

Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard has not given up yet but she has earned only two delegates and the Democratic establishment is doing its best to ignore her candidacy.

The running delegate count from RealClearPolitics has Biden at 816 to Sanders’ 658 of the 1991 need for a first ballot victory.