The Cook Political Report has projected former Vice President Joe Biden to win Massachusetts in a major blow to the state’s own Sen. Elizabeth Warren and neighboring Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Biden’s victory marks the former vice president’s first New England win of the contest after sweeping each state to vote so far in the south, including South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. With 40 percent of precincts reporting, Texas is too close to call. Outside of the south, Minnesota has also been called for Biden.
The former vice president will now carry a plurality of the state’s 91 delegates while Warren will place third in her home state raising pressure on the Massachusetts progressive to drop out of the race.
Sanders meanwhile, has been declared the winner of Utah, Colorado and his home state of Vermont. Sanders’ victory in Colorado however, is no big win for the Vermont senator as four candidates appear on track to meet the delegate threshold therefore splitting the state’s spoils four separate ways.
No state in the Democratic primary is a winner-take-all contest, though to score delegates, candidates must win 15 percent of the vote statewide to capture at-large delegates or 15 percent in congressional districts to earn district delegates.
To avoid a contested convention in July, the winning candidate must secure 1,991 of the race’s 3,979 delegates. More than a third of the race’s total delegates will be decided in the Super Tuesday contests.
