After the polls closed late on Tuesday night, it was clear that former Vice President Joe Biden had re-established himself as the frontrunner in the Democratic race for president.
During the night, Biden claimed 10 of the 14 states by pretty decisive margins with his biggest delegate wins coming from Virginia and Texas. The other four states were won by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders claimed his home state of Vermont, along with Colorado and Utah, and the night’s grand prize of California.
By winning 10 states to Sanders’ four, it would seem that Biden would be far ahead in the delegate count. However, Sanders was able to claim second in every state that Biden won and reach the 15 percent needed to win delegates in all 14 states. Along with reaching viability in all of the Super Tuesday contests, Sanders’ California victory gave him the push he needed to draw closer to Biden during the night.
In the race to the 1,991 pledged delegates needed to claim the Democratic nomination, the delegate count now stands at Biden in the lead with 596 delegates and Sanders trailing slightly behind with 531. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren follows behind both with only 65 delegates as she finished with low percentages in many of the states up for grabs. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also was able to grab 58 delegates on Super Tuesday. Bloomberg then dropped out of the race in support of Biden the next day.
With the number of delegates growing for Biden and Sanders, it may soon be a race only between these two. However, only time will tell if Warren drops out of the race to create this scenario. If Warren does drop out of the race, the majority of her supporters have Sanders as their next choice and this could lead to a more closely contested primary going all the way to the Democratic National Convention. There, a contested convention may occur where superdelegates could come into play.
Even with the lead that Biden has, he will have to move forward with cautious optimism about the future because of how close Sanders is behind him. With six more states casting their votes for the Democratic nominee on March 10, we will get an even better view of the candidate who will remain the leading contender to face off against President Trump.