By Virgil Parker, Staff Reporter
The once presidential hopefuls Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Mayor Mike Bloomberg have dropped out of the race following an unsatisfying Super Tuesday performance. Warren collected 56 delegates and Bloomberg collected 61. Warren lost her home state of Massachusetts, coming in third behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Biden emerged as the new Democratic front-runner on Super Tuesday, winning 10 out of the 14 states and taking the delegate lead from Sen. Bernie Sanders. According to NBC News, Biden has 652 delegates and is currently leading Bernie Sanders by 77 delegates. The states that voted on Super Tuesday were Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.
Before Super Tuesday contests, Bernie Sanders had won two out of four primaries. Biden had only won South Carolina, but picked up momentum during the 48 hours between that primary, which he won overwhelmingly, and Super Tuesday.
Biden received endorsements from multiple party leaders including former presidential rivals Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and, most recently, Sen. Kamala Harris. Unlike Harris, who exited the race in 2019, Klobuchar and Buttigieg did not drop out until they had poor showings in the South Carolina primary. Warren is refraining from endorsing any candidate at this time. The senator said that she needs time to decide if, when and how she will deliver her endorsement. However, she has vowed to continue to fight for the issues that she introduced during her campaign.
Despite winning only four out of 14 Super Tuesday states – California, Colorado, Utah and Vermont — Bernie Sanders’ supporters are still optimistic about the campaign.
“I think the results show that Bernie Sanders has built a diverse coalition that not only wins but brings people together,” said Nigel Johnson, a sophomore from Port Saint Lucie, Florida, with a double major in political science and economics.
“Notice he is winning in states that Democrats need to flip in order to take the Senate. He is literally proving tonight he has the capability of winning and helping down-ballot races.” Johnson is a panelist on “Political Culture,” a commentary show that can be found IGTV and YouTube, and he is also the president of the Howard University College Democrats.
Super Tuesday’s voting was not totally without incident. During Biden’s speech at a rally in Los Angeles, he was interrupted by protesters holding “Let Dairy Die” signs. The anti-dairy movement was led by the animal rights activist coalition called Direct Action Everywhere. According to Buzzfeed, the candidate’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and advisor Symone Sanders fought off the two protesters.
Politico reported that Bernie Sanders’ campaign filed an emergency injunction to extend voting hours in California after long lines led to delays. California is a critical state in the race to capture the Democratic nomination, with 415 delegates. Sanders ultimately won the state with 33.8 percent of the popular vote.
“Super Tuesday results showed us that money can’t win you an election, having a movement can’t win you an election, but momentum can,” said Hadiyah Cummings, a “Political Culture” panelist and junior from Conway, Arkansas, with a double major in political science and criminology.
“Although I am by no means a Biden supporter, and have actually been praying that we wouldn’t see this day, it is truly stunning to see how he won state’s like Massachusetts, Arkansas and Texas without having spent very much money there or even having staff there,” Cummings said. “It’s going to be a long road until the convention.”
“It’s hard for me to believe Biden would have done so [well] on Tuesday without the endorsement from Mayor Pete as Pete would have likely taken votes and potential delegates away from the vice president,” says William Pugh, a senior from Charleston, South Carolina, who majors in political science and minors in philosophy. Pugh is vice president of Howard’s Speech and Debate team and is also a panelist for “Political Culture.”
“I’m encouraged by the fact that more support is growing behind Biden, but believe the worst thing we can do as a party is ignore and demonize Bernie Sanders supporters,” Pugh added. “A winning ticket in November must include some degree of representation of those to the left of Biden ideologically.”
The next state primaries will be on Tuesday, March 10th. For a list of primaries by state, please click here.
