Democratic hopefuls Biden, Sanders switch to online campaign
Washington, Tuesday
Constrained by emergency coronavirus measures, Democratic presidential nomination hopefuls Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders will now be campaigning in the virtual realm across four states where residents were set to vote Tuesday.
Biden tops polling by significant margins in battlegrounds Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio, where the 77-year-old former vice president could strike a hammer blow against his rival by building an insurmountable lead in the delegate count.
It may also be a last gasp of sorts for the leftist Sanders, who will face mounting pressure to quit if he does not score a major upset this week.
The media projected that Biden had won in Washington state, in another boost for the frontrunner.
Meanwhile, though, the coronavirus pandemic has cast the White House into uncharted territory, leaving the fate of the vote in four states up in the air.
With most aspects of American life upended, the pandemic has achieved the near-impossible by relegating the Biden-Sanders duel to second-tier news.
Americans are staying home from work or school by the millions as the country implements emergency measures.
But Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio have declared they will forge ahead with their primaries despite new health agency guidelines late Sunday that recommend halting any gatherings of 50 people or more.
Georgia, which was next in line to vote on March 24, is delaying its primary until May 19. Louisiana had earlier postponed its planned April 4 election to June 20.
Both candidates say they will campaign exclusively online for now, a scenario unheard of at the height of a US presidential primary battle.
“We’re not going into crowds,” Biden said during a one-on-one debate against Sanders, held Sunday night in an empty studio with no live audience.
Biden held a “tele-town hall” at 8pm Monday, with voters in all four states, when he laid out his vision for America and listened to “voters concerns and ideas around restoring the soul of the nation, rebuilding the middle class, and unifying the country,” his campaign said.
Sanders was also scheduled to livestream a “digital rally” one hour earlier for voters in the four states featuring multiple high-profile supporters. -AFP
