In Another Big Night for Joe Biden, the Former Veep Sweeps Florida, Illinois, and Arizona

Matt Rourke/AP

Former vice president Joe Biden won decisive primary victories in Florida, Illinois, and Arizona on Tuesday, adding to his nearly insurmountable delegate lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, in what may be the last election of its kind for weeks.

Biden, who emerged as Sanders’ chief rival after winning the South Carolina primary on February 29, put the race out of reach by winning 10 states on Super Tuesday, followed by big wins in Michigan, Missouri, and Mississippi last week. But the results in Tuesday’s three primaries, where Biden’s success was never really in doubt, will likely be overshadowed by the circumstances in which they occurred. In an unprecedented move due to the nationwide coronavirus pandemic, the Sanders campaign told its voters that the decision to show up to vote in-person was their own to make and declined to deploy traditional get-out-the-vote efforts. A fourth state, Ohio, where Biden was also expected to perform well, postponed its primary at the last minute on Monday, after Gov. Mike DeWine argued that it would impossible to hold an election citizens would consider “legitimate” when senior citizens and others residents are being instructed by the government to stay at home.