Rampant Biden crushes rival Sanders in primaries hat-trick
Washington, Wednesday
Leftist Bernie Sanders was under fresh pressure on Wednesday to bow out of the race for the Democratic White House nomination after his rival Joe Biden steamrolled him in primary elections in Florida, Illinois and Arizona.
Accelerating his momentum in the race, Biden made a clean sweep in all three states. He appealed for support directly to Sanders supporters. “My goal as a candidate for president is to unify this party and then to unify the nation.”
With his hat-trick, Biden took another big stride towards becoming the Democratic candidate who will face President Donald Trump in November.
Biden is building a solid lead in delegates to the party’s July nominating convention as Democratic voters appeared to coalesce around him as the best chance to defeat President Donald Trump.
Sanders, once the race’s front-runner, was considering his options as more states postponed their primary votes amid a national shutdown for the COVID-19 emergency.
“The next primary contest is at least three weeks away,” said Sanders’ campaign manager Faiz Shakir in a statement. “Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign.”
Biden handily trounced Sanders in each of Tuesday’s battlegrounds. In the biggest prize of Florida, the 77-year-old former vice president grabbed 62 per cent of the vote against 23 per cent for 78-year-old Sanders.
Party front-runner
In Illinois, Biden topped 59 per cent to Sanders’ 36 percent, and in Arizona, Biden came in with more than 43 per cent to Sanders’ nearly 32 per cent, while former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has already withdrawn from the race, came in a distant third.
Biden has now won 19 of the 24 contests, with just over half to be held.
The victories underscored Biden’s position as the party’s frontrunner and the eagerness of Democratic leaders and party rank and file to come together around a moderate flag bearer, to challenge Trump.
According to a count by RealClearPolitics, Biden has racked up 1,147 delegates to Sanders’ 861, with 1,991 needed to capture the nomination.
Given Biden’s solid lead in national opinion polls among Democrats and in many of the states yet to hold primaries, Sanders faces a steep battle to overtake his rival. -AFP
