After a strong performance in South Carolina shifted his campaign’s momentum, presidential candidate Joe Biden surged on Super Tuesday. Biden is projected to win the Democratic primary in Minnesota and several other states, according to the Associated Press.
As of about 11 p.m., projections have called eight states for Biden, four states for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and zero states for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is projected to win American Samoa.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar was leading Minnesota polls at 29% as of Feb. 22, according to FiveThirtyEight. But Klobuchar announced Monday that she was dropping out of the race and joined former candidates Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana and former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke in endorsing Biden.
“We won Minnesota because of Amy Klobuchar,” Biden said in a Super Tuesday speech from Los Angeles.
Unlike other Democratic candidates like Sanders and Warren, Biden has not visited Minnesota during his 2020 campaign.
Klobuchar, Buttigieg and Steyer all suspended their campaigns within three days before Super Tuesday. For early voters, Feb. 25 was the last date their votes could be rescinded and recast.
Sanders was the overwhelming favorite at University of Minnesota-area precincts, with upwards of 70% of the vote at some polling places.
University junior James Dowd voted for Biden at University Lutheran Church in Dinkytown.
“I liked his viewpoints on a lot of stuff. And it didn’t seem like it was too far-fetched,” Dowd said. “There are a lot of other opinions where it’s nice to the ears, but it’s like, ‘How are you really going to follow through on that?’”
There are more than 1,300 pledged delegates at stake among the 14 states that hold their primary on Super Tuesday. The delegate system is not winner-take-all, meaning that candidates receive delegates proportional to total votes cast. Minnesota will award 75 delegates between any candidate that exceeds the 15% threshold.
In the Republican primary, President Donald Trump won Minnesota as the lone candidate on the ballot with around 97% of the vote. Student supporters of Trump and Republican Party leadership gathered in Nicholson Hall Tuesday evening to await the results.
“I have a problem with the amount of false hope a lot of the Democratic candidates are giving off to people, and I think Trump is the closest to my ideals,” said University student Jade Ochu, who attended the event. “I believe he’s been fairly honest with us compared to the other candidates.”
This story will be updated as polling data becomes available.
