Joe Biden has crushed Bernie Sanders in Arizona, seizing the majority of the state’s 67 pledged delegates.
The two-term vice president amassed 42.6% of the vote to the Vermont senator’s 30.4%, with 48% of precincts reporting Tuesday night.
The candidates’ closing arguments to Arizona Democrats in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary were garbled by the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Plans to host the 11th primary debate were scrapped over fears regarding the respiratory disease’s spread in the state. Sanders was able to squeeze in a Phoenix rally prior to Super Tuesday before the spike in cases forced the campaigns to energize their supporters and woo any remaining undecideds online or over the phone. Sanders organized a virtual rally on Monday with musician Neil Young and actress and activist Daryl Hannah to compete with Biden’s tele-town hall, convened across the March 17 voting states.
Arizona, in particular, tested Biden’s and Sanders’s appeal among Latino Democrats. Almost a third of the state identifies as Hispanic or Latino.
Sanders outperformed Biden with the demographic in states such as California, Nevada, and Texas. Biden still won Texas, a surprise upset, in part because black Democrats voted at higher rates for Delaware’s 36-year senator.
Political observers will pore over any available exit polls given efforts during the 2016 general election to turn Arizona decisively blue. The state elected its first Democratic senator in more than two decades during the 2018 midterm cycle, incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
Ahead of Tuesday’s contest, Biden had on average an 18 percentage point lead on Sanders and a 3.8 percentage point advantage on President Trump if the fall fight were held today, RealClearPolitics data indicated.
Biden is dominating Sanders in the delegate count before the Democratic National Convention this summer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with 1,991 needed to clinch the nomination. Heading into the March 17 primaries in Arizona, Florida, and Illinois, former President Barack Obama’s No. 2 had 871 delegates to the sitting senator’s 719.
