Biden soars in Florida, now leading in Michigan over Sanders
Following a big win on Super Tuesday, former Vice President Joe Biden has is now leading Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the former front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, in battleground states of Florida and Michigan.
Michigan voters are being practical, according to Politico, swinging towards Biden ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
photo donkeyhotey [email protected]
“Even before Sanders’ woebegone Tuesday — marked by losses to Joe Biden throughout the South and in Massachusetts and Minnesota — a Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll put Biden ahead of Sanders by nearly 7 percentage points in Michigan,” the outlet reported Thursday, adding that the Biden campaign believes a win in Michigan would cement the lead for Biden.
“Biden can finish Bernie off in Michigan,” one former Sanders aide told Politico.
In the mid-February poll, Sanders was ahead by 9%, so that’s a big 15% negative swing against Bernie since the South Carolina win for Biden.
Sanders has scheduled two big rallies in Detroit and Grand Rapids.
Biden is in an even better situation in Florida.
“More than 61% of likely Florida voters favor Biden, according to the most recent survey by St. Pete Pollscommissioned by Florida Politics (the full PDF of the poll is embedded below),” Florida Politics reports. “That gives the former Vice President a commanding lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, at 12%, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, with 5%.”
In the wake of Sanders’ pro-Castro, pro-Cuba remarks, Biden, who was already well in the lead in Florida going into Super Tuesday, picked up an additional 20 points on Wednesday, after Bloomberg made his announcement.
There still are some delegates from Super Tuesday still not allocated, but Biden is currently leading Sanders 626 to 550.
Of the next series of primaries, Biden seems primed to continue his domination in the south, win Michigan and leave Sanders with only Washington state as the Vermont senator’s only lock.
538 predicts there is a 60% chance that no candidate reaches the necessary delegate count to win outright, with Biden having a 30% chance of winning and Sanders falling to an 8% chance.
photo donkeyhotey
