WASHINGTON: Joe Biden, the former US vice- president, emerged as the leading Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential election as he swept across southern states on Super Tuesday.

Now, the Democratic presidential race has narrowed down to two candidates, Mr Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders, who until Tuesday, was far ahead of his other rivals.

By Wednesday afternoon, Mr Biden, former president Barack Obama’s two-term vice-president, had won 399 of the 13,000 delegates that were up for grabs on Tuesday. Mr Sanders won 322 delegates while 536 were yet to be awarded. The US media projected that Mr Biden would end up with 453 delegates in the final results while 382 will go to Mr. Sanders and 50 to the third remaining candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren.

With 382 delegates, Mr Sanders is strong enough to resist Mr Biden’s nomination quest till the very end.

On Super Tuesday, maximum number of states and union territories elect delegates who then elect their party’s candidate for the White House. These elections are called primaries or caucuses. Since President Donald Trump, now seeking a second term, is the only Republican candidate in the race, all eyes are focused on the Democratic primaries.

“Joe Biden’s stunning wins on Super Tuesday came as a surprise to even Biden loyalists,” observed The Hill, a Congress-based newspaper that specialises in US electoral politics.

Bloomberg ends campaign

Mr Biden’s victory was also recognised by his rival candidates, including Mike Bloomberg, who ended his campaign on Wednesday with a vow to continue his fight to defeat President Trump in November.

“After Tuesday’s results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible — and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists,” Mr Bloomberg said in a statement. “But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November … [by] uniting behind the most viable Democratic candidate, Joe Biden.”

Mr Bloomberg spent $620 billion on his campaign before quitting the race. His total wealth is estimated at $62bn.

Roger Lau, Senator Warren’s campaign manager, acknowledged in a frank email to his staffers that the campaign missed its goal on Tuesday, causing media speculation that Ms Warren would also withdraw from the race.

Mr Bloomberg’s is the latest in a string of endorsements for Mr Biden that began with his 29-point victory in the South Carolina primary on Saturday. The moderate wing of the Democratic Party, which fears that Americans are not yet ready to vote for a self-declared socialist democrat like Mr Sanders, rallied around Mr Biden. And a day before Super Tuesday, three for his former competitors — Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O’Rourke — endorsed him too, as did more than two dozen lawmakers associated with the party’s establishment.

Emboldened by this support, Mr Biden swept the Southern states, winning the primaries in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas, as well as Minnesota and Massachusetts, and ended the night with the most delegates. Senator Sanders came out on top in Colorado, Utah and his home state of Vermont. The victory followed Mr Biden’s big losses in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Turnout

Overall turnout was much higher in states like Virginia where more than 1.3 million voters cast ballots compared to the roughly 800,000 four years ago. But exit polls showed that the share of young voters as a percentage of the entire electorate declined, which hurt Mr Sanders.

As the votes were being counted, President Trump offered running commentary on the results on his Twitter site.

“The Democrat establishment came together and crushed Bernie Sanders, AGAIN! Even the fact that Elizabeth Warren stayed in the race was devastating to Bernie and allowed Sleepy Joe to unthinkably win Massachusetts. It was a perfect storm, with many good states remaining for Joe,” he wrote soon after Mr Biden’s win was confirmed.

“Wow! If Elizabeth Warren wasn’t in the race, Bernie Sanders would have EASILY won Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas, not to mention various other states. Our modern-day Pocahontas won’t go down in history as a winner, but she may very well go down as the all-time great SPOILER!” he wrote in another tweet.

“Mini Mike Bloomberg just “quit” the race for President. I could have told him long ago that he didn’t have what it takes, and he would have saved himself a billion dollars, the real cost. Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joe’s campaign, hoping to save face. It won’t work!”

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2020