Former Vice President Joe Biden has captured another first-place victory in the south with a top finish in Mississippi, the Associated Press projects.
Biden will now take a majority, if not all of the state’s 36 delegates, depending on whether Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will meet the 15 percent threshold to score delegates in the state primary.
No state in the Democratic nominating process this year is a winner-take-all contest. However, candidates must garner at least 15 percent of the statewide vote to land at-large delegates or 15 percent of the vote in state congressional districts to score district delegates. The winner of the nomination must secure 1,991 of the 3,979 delegates in the race to secure the nomination in Milwaukee.
Sanders had largely already conceded Mississippi last week by cancelling events in the state to spend more time in Michigan, the biggest prize of Tuesday’s contests with 125 delegates up for grabs. Sanders narrowly carried the Midwestern battleground in an upset victory against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 despite polling being behind in the polls by 16 percent. Other states to vote Tuesday night include Missouri, North Dakota, Washington, and Idaho.
Biden will now add Mississippi to his growing list of southern state wins after having swept every state in the south to vote this far, including South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Biden has done so with blow-out margins in each state with the closest race being in Texas where Biden clinched the contest by only 4.5 percent of the vote, winning 34.5 percent to Sanders’ 30. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg took away just less than 15 percent but captured nine total delegates from the state by reaching the required threshold at the district level.
Biden’s southern victories are largely a result of the former vice president’s strong support among black voters, who brought new life into his flailing campaign following a game-changing first-place finish in South Carolina marking Biden’s first presidential primary win after three prior runs for the White House. Biden’s triumphant resurrection in South Carolina led to 10 state victories on Super Tuesday including states that Biden never even campaigned in putting Biden back into frontrunner status and forcing Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren out of the race. Warren placed third in her home state while Biden won handily despite no presence there.