Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday task was to cement his place as the top centrist alternative to Bernie Sanders and prove that he can mount a comeback not only in South Carolina, but nationwide.
He crushed his competition.
Biden had such a lead in Virginia, North Carolina, and Alabama that media outlets called the states for him seconds after polls closed. The former vice president swept states where he had no field offices, next to no television advertisements, and where he never visited, like Massachusetts. It made former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s more than $600 million in ad spending seem like a lost cause and a desperate attempt to spend his way to support.
He earned more votes in Virginia than Barack Obama did in 2008, more than 705,000 compared to Obama’s, which was about 628,000, and won Oklahoma and Minnesota, states that Sanders won in 2016.
Full results are being calculated, but the New York Times projects that Biden will amass a slight delegate lead over the socialist Vermont senator, while his only centrist competition, Bloomberg, is expected to be hundreds of delegates behind Biden. Whether he slightly leads or slightly trails Sanders, Biden’s place as the main Sanders competitor is set.
It is a stunning comeback for a candidate whose campaign was on life support a few weeks ago.
For much of the last year, the former vice president seemed to be one of the least-threatening presidential primary front-runners in recent memory.
Biden’s near-universal name recognition and his nearly half-century of experience in office did not dissuade more than two dozen challengers from jumping into the race. He had trouble raising money. Verbal slip-ups made voters question whether the 77-year-old retains the cognitive capacity to be commander in chief. Bloomberg entered the race in November in part because he saw an opening to replace Biden as the main centrist alternative to socialist Sanders.
His dismal fourth- and fifth-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire seemed like they could be the end of his campaign.
“They said it would be over, but it may be over for the other guy,” Biden said in a speech Tuesday night. “We’re very much alive.”
But then, Biden crushed his competition in South Carolina, winning the state by nearly 30 points. He got a wave of energy, seeming stronger on the stump than he did in Iowa and New Hampshire. Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race within 24 hours of each other, preventing centrist voters from splitting votes among candidates. Both of them and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who also sought the 2020 Democratic nomination, endorsed Biden on the eve before Super Tuesday.
Biden acknowledged a bump in support as a result of the endorsements.
“We won Minnesota because of Amy Klobuchar, and we’re doing well in Texas because of Beto O’Rourke,” he said Tuesday.
And he took a jab at Sanders’s rhetoric, noting a surge in participation indicating support for him rather than the senator who campaigns on increasing turnout.
“People are talking about a revolution. We’re creating a movement,” Biden said.
The Biden campaign’s new strength and energy was personified by top aide Symone Sanders swiftly tackling and removing a protester who rushed the stage on Tuesday evening.
In his phoenixlike rise from ashes, Biden has found a new core campaign message that may resonate with voters more than his usual argument that he will return the country to normalcy post-Trump.
“For those who’ve been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign.”
