On Tuesday March 3, Americans in 14 states voted for their choice of the Democratic candidates for the 2020 Presidential Election.
The Maine results wound up in favor of former Vice President Joe Biden, who received 68,396 votes in total, making him the front runner as of now for the delegate count. After Super Tuesday, Biden had 566 of the available national delegates, while Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders trails with 501.
Biden won the Maine vote with approximately 2,000 votes over Sen. Sanders, who received 65,894 votes. In the 2016 Presidential election, Sanders won the state of Maine primary with a 64% vote. Sanders had been projected to win Maine’s delegates in a poll conducted by Colby College in early 2020.
“I am excited about where we are. We have come a long, long way,” Sanders said after the final results came in. Although Sanders’ campaign took a hit on Super Tuesday, his team continues to campaign around the nation, with a focus on seeking delegates in Michigan, the next state to hold a primary election.
Biden won 10 states out of the 14 voting on Super Tuesday. In addition to Maine, Biden won Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, North Carolina, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. Biden also performed strongly in Texas, where he won 111 of the state’s 228 delegates.
One of the major focuses for Sen. Sanders going forward in the race is the fact that Sanders’ campaign does not take money from Super Political Action Committees, which many of the leading candidates do. Sanders’ campaign is fully funded through donations and grassroots contributions.
“Does anyone seriously believe that a president backed by the corporate world is going to bring about the changes in this country that working families and the middle class and lower-income people desperately need,” Sanders asked in the wake of Biden’s wins on Tuesday.
Sanders won the vote of his home state Vermont, along with California, Colorado and Utah. The large turnout of Latino and young voters, between the ages of 18 and 30, has been credited in Sanders’ success over Biden in California.
On Wednesday morning, following the results of Super Tuesday, former mayor of New York and Democratic nominee Mike Bloomberg announced the suspension of his campaign. Bloomberg then announced that he would be endorsing Joe Biden. During his campaign, which was launched in early November of 2019, Bloomberg spent more than $500 million, which has drawn criticism from those who felt as though he was buying his way into the presidential race.
“To those who’ve [been] knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign,” Biden announced after reviewing the Super Tuesday results. “It may be over for the other guy.”
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced her withdrawal from the election on Thursday, March 5. Warren failed to finish as one of the top two candidates in any of the 14 states that voted on Tuesday.
“All those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years … That’s going to be hard,” Warren said after announcing the suspension of her campaign. Warren has yet to endorse either Biden or Sanders.
“I want to take a little time to think a little more,” Warren said on choosing which candidate she will endorse.
Warren has been urged by many to endorse Biden.
The University of Maine community, however, was very clear about which candidate they hoped would win the Democratic nomination, with 52.5% of voters in the Orono area casting their vote for Sen. Sanders. Sanders has maintained momentum with the young voter demographic, with many enticed by Sanders’ proposed policies to reduce student debt and implement universal healthcare in America.
“Biden winning Maine was [an] upset to be honest. I think it says that Democrats in Maine want to win, and that they like Biden, at least more than Sanders. To me, it says that Biden will be the nominee. Also that Sanders was simply an anti-Hillary vote in 2016,” Matthew Fishbein, a third-year political science student told the Maine Campus.
