The election field dwindles

Super Tuesday results leave Biden and Sanders as the only remaining candidates

Althea Ulin / Asst. News Editor / The USD Vista

Going into Super Tuesday, some voters expected success for Senator Bernie Sanders, the leading progressive candidate for the Democrats. However, as candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped from the race and endorsed Former Vice President Joe Biden on the eve of Super Tuesday, delegates opened up for the taking.  

Following the early primaries, Biden’s campaign seemed to be losing steam, but had a strong comeback in South Carolina and on Super Tuesday. Biden has now taken the delegate count lead since Tuesday, with a total of 809 delegates according to the New York Times delegate count. This is a 155-delegate lead over Senator Sanders, who has a total of 654 delegates as of 8:30 p.m. March 10. 

Super Tuesday is the largest single day of primary elections in the campaign calendar with 14 states casting their votes. Of the states that voted, 11 states favored Biden. However, Sanders won in California, the largest State that voted on Super Tuesday, with a near 10% lead.

After significant Super Tuesday losses, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden as the only major moderate candidate left in the race. March 5 brought an end to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s campaign, leaving Sanders as the only progresive candidate in the running. 

While polls currently show that Biden leads in black and older voters, two of the most critical voter groups, Sanders has two major strongholds backing his campaign: Latino voters and young voters, as evident in his California turnout. Sanders continues to claim that his campaign will produce large voter turnout in the younger generation, but that has not been the case. His campaign statements include, “What we need is a new politics that brings working-class people into our political movement, which brings young people into our political movement, and which in November will create the highest voter turnout in American political history.” 

With distinct voter bases, the next primary decisions depend on which groups will come out to vote. Statistically, most of the remaining primary states look like Biden victories, and Biden’s voter base is more reliable to come out on voting day. Adding to this statistical advantage, Biden’s campaign has been flooded with endorsements while Sanders’ has faced criticisms by some Democratic establishment leaders. 

An important question that Democrats are asking themselves this election cycle is “who will beat President Trump?” In a September poll conducted by FiveThirtyEight, voters listed this question as their top concern. FiveThirtyEight pollsters drew a conclusion that showed electability as impossible to predict as polls cannot be fully accurate forecasting results. 

Value alignment and platform consistency are the most important candidate characteristics for junior Zia Yurchuck. 

“I initially supported a candidate who I felt aligned with my values and was also charismatic and generably likeable,” Yurchuck said. “And I decided to vote for the candidate that was consistent in their platforms.”

In the U.S., there are six traditional “swing states” that have the potential of voting for either party. These include: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Often, these states end up being the deciding factor in presidential races. 

According to the New York Times polls and data, Biden polls better than Sanders or Trump, including in national polls. Of the entire electorate, roughly one third of voters “will definitely” vote for Trump and another third “will definitely vote for the democratic candidate.” Of the remaining third, half of those will “most likely” vote along their party line, leaving 15% of the population as “persuadable” voters in the coming eight months. 

Primaries are continuing to be held in states across the country, and between in-person, mail, and absentee ballots, it takes time for the votes to be accurately counted.  To secure the nomination, 1,991 delegates need to be won by either Biden or Sanders, and until then, the Democratic nominee will not be decided.