The withdrawal of Buttigieg and Klobuchar clears the overpopulated competition for facing Trump at the polls
The hitherto nourished race for the nomination of the Democratic Party for the November presidential elections reaches the decisive ‘supermarte’ a little more clear after the withdrawal of Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, which turns the competition into a hand-in-hand between the moderate Joe Biden and the socialist Bernie Sanders.
On Tuesday, primary events are held in fourteen states and one territory of the country (American Samoa) and a third of the delegates who will make a final decision at the National Democratic Convention in July to elect the president’s rival, Donald Trump, are at stake.
To get an idea of ​​the importance of this day, adding all the polling places, a total of 1,357 delegates of the 1,991 who guarantee the final nomination at the convention are at stake.
In any case, no one will be guaranteed the final nomination after this ‘super Tuesday’, whatever happens in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and American Samoa.
Given the size of the vote, the electoral board has asked for patience in the face of the final results, which could be delayed for days. “If we were to count at the time the polls closed, we would be leaving voters without rights, that simple,” explains Kathleen Hale, director of the Research and Practice Institute of the Electoral Administration of the University, to NPR from Auburn.
“And if we expect to have a count within four or five hours after the polls close, we need a much more sophisticated and, frankly, expensive infrastructure to make it even remotely possible,” he explained.
In addition, there are many other unknowns to clear. The dome of the party is attentive to what is considered a general test on the electorate, by the ideological variety of the population of the states at stake, or the incorporation at the last minute of the magnate and ex-mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, absent from The first votes.
But it is Biden and Sanders who seem doomed to the last confrontation. The first, representative of the elites of the party, protected in his image of statesman. The second, practically a “renegade” self-proclaimed as a social democrat, and strengthened by the impact of its aggressive bases on social networks.
FACE TO FACE
Since the beginning of the primaries in Iowa, Sanders has been cornering Biden to force the former vice president to grab the momentous victory won in South Carolina this past Saturday to keep his victory options.
Sanders, meanwhile, rides the wave of the electorate sector that has opted to embrace the prevailing polarization in American politics instead of choosing the moderation that Biden represents, in whom they perceive the same systemic features they saw in Hillary Clinton, defeated by Trump does Almost four years.
After them, the senator for Masachussetts, Elizabeth Warren, and Bloomberg will fight to grab the 15 percent vote that guarantees them at least one delegate in each state where the supermarte primaries are held. Warren starts with the best options to keep fighting until the end.
CALIFORNIA Y TEXAS, THE KEY
Two states stand out above all: California, which provides 494 delegates, and Texas, which provides 261. Sanders, according to the latest surveys of the CBS / YouGov network published this Sunday, would win in both with an approximate 30 percent of the votes (The number of delegates assigned is proportional to the percentage of vote). Biden is second in both states, with 19 and 26 percent respectively.
The survey highlights the strengths of Sanders and Biden. The first, especially popular among young people, Hispanics and the working class. The second is the favorite of black voters who raised him in South Carolina: six out of ten cast their vote in their favor.
While these first votes turn pale before Tuesday’s – so far, Sanders has only 58 delegates for 50 of Biden, 26 of Buttigieg, 8 of Warren and 7 of Klobuchar – the compilation of the polls so far maintains the favoritism of the veteran senator.
According to data collected by RealClearPolitics from dozens of polls, Sanders is the preferred candidate of respondents with ten points of difference over Biden, with Bloomberg and Warren tied at some distance.
WITHDRAWAL OF KLOBUCHAR AND BUTTIGIEG
This ‘super Tuesday’ is marked by the recent resignation of Klobuchar and Buttigieg, announced by surprise without waiting for the 3 litmus test
