Joe Biden Just Notched Another Major Victory

He takes Michigan, along with Mississippi and Missouri
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 10, 2020 7:03 PM CDT
Updated Mar 10, 2020 10:03 PM CDT
Biden Scores First Win in Tuesday Primaries
Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally at Renaissance High School in Detroit, Monday, March 9, 2020.   (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Bernie Sanders' chances of winning the Democratic nomination just got much more difficult. The AP called all-important Michigan (125 delegates) for Joe Biden Tuesday night. Sanders won the state in 2016 in a stunning upset over Hillary Clinton, but he could not repeat the magic. He trailed Biden by 12 percentage points with more than half the results counted, per CNN. The former VP earlier won in Mississippi (36) and Missouri (68) by wide margins. Polls also have closed in North Dakota (14), Idaho (20) and Washington state (89), but those races have not been called.

Exit polls from the early states show that Biden got strong support from African-American voters, reports the Washington Post. Late deciders and older white voters also tended to go Biden's way. Sanders won Washington state in 2016, and he had a decent chance of winning there again on Tuesday, per Politico. Still, the loss in battleground Michigan is seen as a serious blow to his chances of winning the nomination. A total of 352 delegates were up for grabs Tuesday, which means that nearly half of all delegates in the 2020 primary will have been awarded when the latest results are tallied. (Both candidates have canceled rallies because of the coronavirus scare.)

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