Joe Biden is projected to win all three states that voted in the Democratic primary on Tuesday night, advancing his delegate lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Biden won Florida by a wide margin, garnering nearly 62 percent of the vote compared to Sanders’s 23 percent. Hillary Clinton defeated Sanders by a similar margin in 2016. Florida awards 219 delegates proportionally, putting Biden that much closer to the 1,991 delegates required to secure the nomination in the first round of voting at the Democratic National Convention.
Poll workers in Florida noted lower turnout than usual due to fears over the coronavirus, a phenomenon that could have hurt Biden due to his popularity among older voters. However, a CNN poll also found that Democratic voters in Florida overwhelmingly trusted Biden more than Sanders to handle a major health crisis.
Reports showed Biden leading in Illinois by over 20 percentage points, according to the New York Times. Biden is also projected to win Arizona, which has seemingly avoided the COVID-19 curse — the secretary of state’s office claimed voter turnout, including early voting and mail voting, was on track to exceed 2016 levels.
Biden’s campaign jolted to life in South Carolina last month after a slow start to the race, with the former vice president notching his first ever primary victory in 32 years of running for the presidency. He cruised ahead of Sanders on Super Tuesday and then Mini Tuesday. But Sanders refused to drop out, instead participating in a live CNN debate on Sunday night where he attacked Biden’s record on Social Security, bankruptcy legislation, trade, and health care.
Based on preliminary results Tuesday evening, Bernie’s last stand was awfully wobbly.
It’ll take more than a global pandemic to stop Biden the 77-year-old asthmatic from sailing to victory on St Patrick’s Day. Call it the luck of the Irish.
