WASHINGTON -- Joe Biden swept to victories in Florida, Illinois and Arizona on Tuesday, increasingly pulling away with a Democratic presidential primary upended by the coronavirus and building pressure on Bernie Sanders to abandon his campaign.
Biden carried Illinois by a wide margin, keeping intact his winning streak in the large Midwestern primary states, after previously winning in Minnesota and Michigan.
The victory in Florida was seen as a particularly sharp blow for Sanders. Many moderate and conservative Hispanic voters in the state had recoiled from his past praise of leftist governments in Latin America, including his admiring remarks about certain achievements of Fidel Castro's Cuba.
The former vice president's third big night in as many weeks came amid uncertainty confronting the Democratic contest as it collides with efforts to slow the spread of the virus that have shut down large parts of American life. Polls were shuttered in Ohio, and although voting went ahead in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, election workers and voters reported problems.
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Biden needs less than half of the remaining delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee. The party establishment has increasingly lined up behind him as the best option in November to try and unseat President Donald Trump.
"Our campaign has had a very good night and is a little closer to securing the Democratic nomination," Biden said after his latest two primary victories.
Using a livestream to address supporters from his home state of Delaware, Biden seemed ready to move past the primary. He paid tribute to Sanders for advancing key issues like affordable health care and combating climate change.
"Sen. Sanders and his supporters have brought a remarkable passion and tenacity to all of these issues. Together they have shifted the fundamental conversation in this country," he said. "So let me say, especially to the young voters who have been inspired by Sen. Sanders, I hear you. I know what's at stake. I know what we have to do."
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Also Tuesday, Trump formally clinched the Republican presidential nomination against minimal opposition -- a measure of good if not unexpected news for a White House coping with the public health and economic crisis sparked by the coronavirus.
Results aside, the Democratic primary has remained largely in limbo, with rallies and big events canceled. That has given Sanders, whose pathway to the nomination has greatly narrowed, even less room to maneuver, unable to convene the large crowds across the country that are his trademark.
The race increasingly favors Biden. He maintained strength Tuesday with black Americans and older voters who have been the hallmark of his campaign. He also appeared to chip away at Sanders' previous advantage with Hispanics that helped him win in Nevada and California early in the race.
Some Democrats are now calling on Sanders to leave the race in the name of party unity.
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For his part, Sanders made no immediate move Tuesday to contact Biden, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the candidates. During remarks early in the night, the Vermont senator said little about the future of the race and instead focused on the coronavirus outbreak.
The Vermont senator has promoted calls for universal, government-funded health care under his signature "Medicare for All" plan. Top advisers say he's betting that the national political landscape could look different as the virus continues to reshape life across the country.
During the coronavirus outbreak, "We must make sure everyone who has a job right now receives the paychecks they need," Sanders said in an online appearance that started before Tuesday's polls had even closed.
Turnout in Florida's Democratic primary was higher than it was four years ago, when 1.7 million voters cast ballots. This time, turnout was on pace to approach 2 million. Still, reports of havoc wreaked by the coronavirus dominated the day.
CANCELED VOTES
Officials in Ohio took the unprecedented step of closing polls Monday, mere hours before they were to open, pushing back the state's primary until June.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez blasted the move for breeding "more chaos and confusion" and sought to head off more states taking similar actions, urging those with coming primaries to expand vote-by-mail and absentee balloting, as well as polling station hours.
The fear is that the spread of the coronavirus derails his party's nomination contest.
"The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy, and we must do everything we can to protect and expand that right instead of bringing our democratic process to a halt," Perez said in a statement.
The damage, though, may already have been done.
On Tuesday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan postponed that state's April 28 primary to June 2, but said the state is moving forward with a vote-by-mail special general election April 28 to fill the congressional seat left vacant by the death of Elijah Cummings.
The Republican governor said his two main priorities are keeping Marylanders safe and protecting their constitutional right to vote. Hogan said Maryland has confirmed 57 cases of the coronavirus, a 54% increase from the day before.
"It would endanger public health to allow thousands of people to assembly in places like schools and senior centers which are already closed under the state of emergency, and it would put Marylanders at risk, especially the poll workers and election judges, most of whom are retirees and in the most vulnerable population," Hogan said at a news conference.
Maryland is the latest state to postpone primary elections, following Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana and Ohio.
That has left the Democratic primary calendar empty until March 29, when Puerto Rico is scheduled to go to the polls -- but island leaders are working to reschedule balloting there, too.
That means, there is nowhere for Sanders to gain ground on Biden anytime soon.
GLITCHES AT POLLS
In the meantime, in voting Tuesday problems popped up across the country. In Okaloosa County in Florida's Panhandle, two dozen poll workers dropped out, leaving Elections Supervisor Paul Lux's staff scrambling to train replacements.
"We are at the honest end of the rope," Lux said.
Political observers say the coronavirus has cast a shadow over the race as debates over policy minutiae have taken a back seat to issues of life and death.
"It's definitely eerie," said Jesse Lehrich, a Democratic operative and former Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman who is based in Chicago, who added, "Biden and Sanders are debating the merits of marginally different policies in this little pseudo-reality, while America is consumed by an unprecedented crisis."
Millions of voters have already participated in some form of early voting. But there were signs Tuesday that voters -- and poll workers -- had stayed home.
"People are prioritizing their day-to-day survival right now -- so they're not thinking of voting as a priority," said Debra Cleaver, the founder of Vote.org.
In Florida, Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Wendy Sartori Link said three polling sites had to be moved and four opened significantly late because workers didn't show up and hadn't given notice.
"We probably should have been expecting it more than we were," she said.
In Illinois, there was a push to relocate about 50 Chicago-area polling places after locations canceled at the last minute.
Jim Allen, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, said Tuesday that the board asked Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week to cancel in-person voting, but the governor refused. Pritzker countered that state law doesn't give him the authority to make the changes that elections officials wanted.
"Let me tell you this: It is exactly in times like these when the constitutional boundaries of our democracy should be respected above all else. And if people want to criticize me for that, well, go ahead," the governor said.
A handful of polling places in Arizona were late to open Tuesday because workers didn't show up or the doors were locked.
A rattlesnake caused alarm for voters at a polling place on the outskirts of Scottsdale, Ariz., where neighborhoods meet the desert. Megan Gilbertson, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Elections Department, said an election worker moved it before animal control officers arrived.
There weren't problems, everywhere, though. Mel Dockens, a 49-year-old, small-business owner, voted in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale and said it was a tough choice. But he went for Biden because he thought Sanders' progressive views might turn off some Democratic voters.
"It's all about electability," Dockens said. "It's not that I don't trust Bernie Sanders, but I trust [Biden] a little more."
Information for this article was contributed by Will Weissert, Brian Slodysko, Christina Cassidy, Bill Barrow, Katie Foody, Kelli Kennedy, Terry Spencer, Don Babwin, Seth Borenstein, Alexandra Jaffe and Brian Witte of The Associated Press; and by Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin of The New York Times.
A Section on 03/18/2020