Former Vice President Joe Biden has landed another first-place win over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the state of Illinois on Tuesday, the Associated Press projects.
Biden will now take home a majority of the state’s 155 delegates depending on where Sanders finishes in the state. In order to capture delegates, candidates must win 15 percent of the statewide vote for at-large delegates or 15 percent of the vote in congressional districts to score district-level delegates.
The path to the 1,991 delegates needed to capture the Democratic nomination is getting narrower for Sanders, who is trailing far behind Biden as the Democratic frontrunner continues to dominate in the south and rack up delegates in states across the country.
Biden also won first place in Tuesday night’s grand prize of Florida, securing a majority of the state’s 219 delegates. Polls are not slated to close in Arizona until 9 p.m. eastern and the Ohio primary scheduled for Tuesday was postponed by Governor Mike DeWine declaring a public health emergency over the Wuhan coronavirus on Monday.
Sanders is the last remaining competitive candidate in the race against Biden for the party’s coronation in Milwaukee this summer, though the Vermont senator is becoming far less competitive with each passing week suffering blow and blow. Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard also remains in the contest but has yet to come close to capturing a first-place win in a single state. Gabbard has only won two delegates, both from the territory of her birthplace in American Samoa.
Last week, Biden landed several major victories against Sanders nearly pushing him out of the race with large-margin wins in Washington, Idaho, Missouri, Michigan, and Mississippi, where Sanders didn’t even capture enough support statewide to take home at-large delegates. Biden’s first-place finish in Michigan where Sanders clinched an upset victory four years earlier also marked a major setback for the progressive flag-bearer’s campaign.
