First results from Super Tuesday states point to the Democratic presidential primary becoming a showdown between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
Multiple news organizations projected that the former vice president will win Virginia and that Sanders will win his home state of Vermont.
Sanders’s campaign indicated that it sees Biden as his main rival in a fundraising email sent to supporters on Tuesday evening. “The political establishment has chosen their candidate. It’s Joe Biden. And they’re lining up behind him in an effort to derail our momentum in this race,” it said.
Biden appeared to have gotten a big boost from former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropping out of the race in recent days and endorsing Biden, coalescing centrist support around a single alternative to socialist Sanders rather than fracturing moderate support. Nearly half of Democratic primary voters in Virginia said that they made up their minds about whom to vote for in the last few days, according to a CNN exit poll.
Billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is Biden’s only remaining centrist challenger. Bloomberg said Tuesday that he has “no intention of dropping out,” asserting that Biden is “taking votes away from me.”
Results from 14 states plus the territory of American Samoa on Tuesday will account for 1,344 pledged nominating delegates, about a third of the total. A candidate needs a majority of 1,991 pledged delegates to win the nomination on the first Democratic National Convention ballot and prevent a contested convention, in which case around 770 automatic “superdelegates,” party leaders such as Democratic National Committee members and Democratic members of Congress, are permitted to vote for whomever they wish.
Delegates are allocated based on the proportion of statewide votes and votes within congressional districts (except for Texas, which allocates district delegates based on state Senate districts rather than congressional districts). Candidates must obtain 15% support statewide or in at least one district to earn delegates, meaning that a candidate could pick up some district delegates even if they do not capture more than 15% support statewide.
Polls have not yet closed in the following states:
Alabama — 52 pledged delegates
Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.
Arkansas — 31 pledged delegates
Polls in Arkansas close at 8 p.m. ET.
California — 415 pledged delegates
Polls in California close at 11 p.m. ET (8 p.m. PT).
About 40% of California’s primary electorate votes absentee by mail, meaning that Biden’s wave of endorsements from former rivals on Monday could have a smaller effect there.
Mail-in ballots could also delay declaring a winner in the primary. The last ballots are expected to arrive in mid-March.
Colorado — 67 pledged delegates
Polls in Colorado close at 9 p.m. ET (7 p.m. MT).
Maine — 24 pledged delegates
Polls in Maine close at 8 p.m. ET.
Massachusetts — 91 pledged delegates
Polls in Massachusetts close at 8 p.m. ET.
Elizabeth Warren and Sanders are neck-and-neck in the state, and a win for Sanders on Warren’s turf could increase pressure on her to bow out of the race.
Minnesota — 75 pledged delegates
Polls in Minnesota close at 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CT).
North Carolina — 110 pledged delegates
Polls in North Carolina close at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Oklahoma — 37 pledged delegates
Polls in Oklahoma close at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT).
Tennessee — 64 pledged delegates
Polls in Tennessee close at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET. (7 p.m. local time — the state is split between the Eastern Time Zone and the Central Time Zone.)
An overnight tornado in Nashville and surrounding areas that killed at least 22 people is likely to dampen turnout in the state. In addition to ravaging homes and businesses, the tornado damaged several polling locations, and polls in two counties opened one hour later than usual.
Texas — 228 pledged delegates
Polls in Texas close at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET. (7 p.m. local time — most of the state in the Central Time Zone, but El Paso is in the Mountain Time Zone.)
Nearly 13% of registered Texas voters cast early ballots in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.
Utah — 29 pledged delegates
Polls in Utah close at 10 p.m. ET (8 p.m. MT).
American Samoa — 6 pledged delegates
American Samoa holds a caucus starting at 3 p.m. ET (9 a.m. Samoa Standard time), and results will be announced after the territory’s Democratic Party tabulates results.
