Biden wins nine Super Tuesday states, at least 399 pledged delegates


Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing
March 4, 2020: Joe Biden won nine of the 14 Super Tuesday states with one race still too close to call. He will be allocated at least 399 pledged delegates. Bernie Sanders will receive at least 322 delegates.        

Notable Quote of the Day

“Biden’s rise is owed first and foremost to an overwhelming wave of support from black voters — bigger even than some early polls in this race suggested it might be.

Biden parlayed House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn’s (D-S.C.) endorsement into a bigger-than-expected win Saturday in South Carolina, where black voters were 57 percent of the electorate and favored Biden 4 to 1 over Sanders. Then black voters essentially delivered Biden a big sweep of the South on Tuesday. They delivered a large chunk of the vote, and they went for Biden 57 percent to 17 percent. Perhaps most significant, they gave Biden Texas, where 6 in 10 black voters supported him and provided his narrow win. …

There is a narrative about how the Democratic establishment has come to Biden’s rescue. What really happened is that African Americans did.”

– Aaron Blake, The Washington Post

Super Tuesday results

Fourteen states and American Samoa held events for the presidential nomination on Super Tuesday. Here are the results:

  • Donald Trump won in all 13 states holding Republican primaries on Super Tuesday.
  • Joe Biden was the winner of nine Democratic primaries in Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
  • Bernie Sanders won four Democratic primaries in California, Colorado, Utah, and Vermont.
  • Michael Bloomberg won the Democratic caucus in American Samoa.
  • With 81% of precincts reporting, the race is too close to call in Maine. Biden leads Sanders by 1,345 votes.
  • One-third of Democratic pledged delegates—1,344—were at stake on Super Tuesday. Biden won at least 399 of those delegates. Sanders won at least 322. Bloomberg picked up 44, Elizabeth Warren 42, and Tulsi Gabbard 1. There are 536 delegates that still need to be allocated.

The following chart shows the pledged delegate leaderboard so far.

The map below shows the winners of the Democratic primaries held yesterday.

Democrats

  • Reps. Jim Costa (Calif.) and Abigail Spanberger (Va.), Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon, and Tennessee House Minority Leader Karen Camper endorsed Joe Biden. He began airing a new ad, “It’s Time,” featuring Amy Klobuchar’s endorsement.
  • Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday morning that he expected his only path to the Democratic nomination would be through a contested convention.
  • Tulsi Gabbard criticized media coverage on Fox News that did not name her as a candidate still in the race.
  • A county judge denied Bernie Sanders’ campaign’s request to keep polling locations in Los Angeles open for two additional hours because of technical issues at some sites.
  • Elizabeth Warren announced on Tuesday night that she planned to campaign in Michigan, Arizona, and Idaho in the coming days.

Republicans

  • The Donald Trump campaign filed a lawsuit against The Washington Post for defamation, citing two articles on alleged Russian assistance to Trump’s campaign.

What We’re Reading

Flashback: March 4, 2016

Donald Trump canceled his appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Click here to learn more.