WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Riding a wave of momentum from his big win in South Carolina on Saturday, former Vice President Joe Biden made a remarkable comeback in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in the Super Tuesday contests.
Biden has won at least nine of the fourteen states up for grabs on Tuesday, with the Democratic primary in Maine currently still too close to call.
The biggest and perhaps most surprising win for Biden came in delegate-rich Texas, where Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was expected to do well due to his strong support among Hispanic voters.
Biden seemed to benefit from strong momentum coming out of the South Carolina primary as well as the recent decisions by former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., to drop out of the race and endorse the former vice president.
The dropouts by Buttigieg and Klobuchar seemed to allow more moderate Democrats to coalesce around Biden in an effort to block the self-described Democratic Socialist Sanders from cruising to the nomination.
Klobuchar's endorsement in particular seemed to pay off big in her home state of Minnesota, which Biden won by nearly double digits.
Sanders earned a significant chunk of delegates by winning California, but Biden pulled off big victories in a number of smaller states such as North Carolina, Virginia and Alabama.
The results of yesterday's contests would appear to set up a head-to-head matchup between the very liberal Sanders and the more moderate Biden.
The outcome came as a shock to many political pundits, who had declared Biden's campaign on life support after poor showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
Meanwhile, Super Tuesday was very disappointing for Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who lost her home state of Massachusetts to Biden, and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who didn't win a single state despite massive ad spending.
Warren was seen as partly splitting the progressive vote with Sanders and is likely to face pressure to drop out of the race following her poor showing.
Responding to the results of the Super Tuesday contests, President Donald Trump accused the Democratic establishment of coming together to crush Sanders.
'Even the fact that Elizabeth Warren stayed in the race was devastating to Bernie and allowed Sleepy Joe to unthinkably win Massachusetts,' Trump tweeted. 'It was a perfect storm, with many good states remaining for Joe!'
He added, 'So selfish for Elizabeth Warren to stay in the race. She has Zero chance of even coming close to winning, but hurts Bernie badly. So much for their wonderful liberal friendship.'
The next Democratic primary contests are scheduled for next Tuesday, when Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington will be up for grabs.
Another Democratic debate will follow on March 15th before big states like Arizona, Illinois, Florida and Ohio hold their primaries on March 17th.
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