A resurgent Joe Biden scored sweeping victories across the country with the backing of a diverse coalition, while progressive rival Bernie Sanders seized Super Tuesday’s biggest prize with a win in California as the Democratic Party’s once-crowded presidential field suddenly transformed into a two-man contest.
The two septuagenarians, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for America’s future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the party’s 2020 presidential nomination fight. The winner will take on President Donald Trump in the November general election.
The other two high-profile candidates still in the shrinking Democratic field, New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, were teetering on the edge of viability. Warren finished in an embarrassing third place in her home state, and Bloomberg planned to reassess his candidacy after spending more than a half-billion dollars to score a single victory — in American Samoa.
The new contours of a nomination fight, pitting Biden against Sanders, were crystallizing by day’s end as the two spoke to each other from dueling victory speeches on opposite sides of the country late on March 4. (AP)