BRENDA BLAGG: Super for who?

Build-up to primaries filled with dramatic developments

The Associated Press PRIMARY ELECTION: Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a primary election night campaign rally Tuesday in Los Angeles.
The Associated Press PRIMARY ELECTION: Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a primary election night campaign rally Tuesday in Los Angeles.

How could a single day in the United States' electoral life matter so much?

Actually, votes from Super Tuesday 2020 are still being counted, so its full impact can't be known this morning. But it was definitely a day unlike any other.

The collective votes from 14 different states (including Arkansas), one U.S. territory and Americans living abroad will account for roughly a third of the delegates to the Democrats' nominating convention later this year.

That's huge and the reason Bernie Sanders, the clear front runner for the nomination, looked practically invincible going into Tuesday's election -- that is, until he didn't.

The U.S. senator from Vermont, a self-described democratic socialist, had been expected to gobble up enough delegates in California and Texas and other key states to give him a commanding lead for the Democratic nomination.

Then came last weekend's vote in South Carolina, where an all-but-dismissed Joe Biden won in all of the state's counties, taking more than 48 percent of the vote statewide.

That feat not only resurrected the former vice president's campaign but also triggered an ongoing stream of consequential endorsements.

On the eve of Super Tuesday, Biden picked up endorsements from former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota as well as from Beto O'Rourke, the former U.S. representative from Texas.

Buttigieg and Klobuchar suspended their own campaigns for president just before Super Tuesday, encouraging their supporters to back Biden's bid. O'Rourke ended his presidential campaign on Nov. 1.

All three of Biden's former rivals appeared at a Biden rally in Dallas on Monday night, drawing national television audiences for the underfunded Biden campaign and providing a wealth of free media at a critical juncture.

Meanwhile, Biden continues to pick up other notable Democratic endorsements and has seen a surge in his fundraising.

All of it would have been better for Biden if it had happened sooner before millions of early votes had been cast in Tuesday's elections. But the new attention and money are making a difference.

However many delegates he picked up this week is certainly more than he might have expected before this coalescence of support from many of the more moderate Democrats.

Not included in that number, whatever it is, is Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor who originally offered his unparalleled self-funded candidacy as an alternative to the then-flailing Biden.

Bloomberg's gamble hinged on Super Tuesday voters choosing him -- not Biden -- as the alternative to the more liberal Sanders.

Then came that South Carolina primary, the first of this year's contests to include a significant African American vote and the endorsement that really set off the chain reaction for Biden.

That endorsement came from South Carolina's U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn. Credit Clyburn for swaying a lot of that state's votes to Biden and effectively relaunching Biden's campaign, as he more than doubled Sanders' showing in that state.

Biden's decisive win, in a state where Tom Steyer spent millions to court the African American vote, prompted the billionaire businessman to end his presidential bid immediately.

Fortunately for Biden, both Buttigieg and Klobuchar then bowed out ahead of Super Tuesday, leaving just Bloomberg and a trailing Sen. Elizabeth Warren competing with Biden to be the "not Sanders" candidate for the Democratic nomination.

That description belies strong qualities that Warren and Bloomberg each bring to this presidential campaign that has featured a bounty of solid candidates.

Nevertheless, that's how the competition was framed for 2020's all-too-important Super Tuesday.

Commentary on 03/04/2020

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