Joe Biden won big in New England on Super Tuesday, taking Maine and Massachusetts from neighboring Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, his remaining rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
With 94% of precincts reporting on Wednesday afternoon, Biden, 77, clinched the swing state of Maine with 34% of the vote and at least eight pledged delegates. Sanders, 78, was a close second with 32.9% support and the same number of delegates, some of the 24 available in the state. Warren, 70, was also viable with 15.% and at least two delegates.
Sanders dominated his home state of Vermont’s primary on Super Tuesday, but the senator was expected to do well in Massachusetts as a household name in the region thanks to cross-over media markets and a prior White House bid. The state, instead, went to Biden in another squeaker of a contest.
Biden’s victory in Massachusetts, however, was more embarrassing for Warren, the senior senator for the state. It was her second home-state defeat on Tuesday. She also suffered a loss in Oklahoma, her childhood home where she lived before accepting legal professorships across the country until she settled at Harvard Law School.
Super Tuesday was a big night for the two-term vice president to Barack Obama, allowing him to seize many of the 1,344 pledged delegates up for grabs. He now has 513 in his ledger to Sander’s 461. A total of 1,991 delegates are needed to capture the 2020 nomination.
