Former Vice President Joe Biden had another big night on Tuesday in what may be the last big day of primary voting as states that had been coming up on the calendar reschedule due to coronavirus concerns. With around 80% of the expected vote counted in Illinois and Florida and around two-thirds counted in Arizona, which has a larger proportion of vote by mail, Biden had a crushing win in Florida and a dominating one in Illinois. Arizona is somewhat closer as of this writing—but somewhat closer means Biden’s lead is a mere 12 points.
The other big election news Tuesday night was that Rep. Dan Lipinski finally lost his primary, after years of efforts, to progressive challenger Marie Newman. Lipinski is a Democrat in a blue district who’s been conservative pretty much across the board, from his fierce opposition to reproductive freedoms to his also-fierce opposition to marriage equality to his refusal to endorse President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012. Beating him has been a major goal for Daily Kos and other progressive organizations for years, and it is a real bright spot right now.
The big question now is where the Democratic primary goes from here. According to The New York Times, Biden has extended his delegate lead to nearly 300 delegates, with another 75 still to be awarded from Tuesday’s primaries. Around 40 of those are from Florida, where Biden currently has more than 60%. And at this point we can’t confidently say when other states will hold their primaries—Ohio was supposed to vote on Tuesday but postponed its primary.
“The next primary contest is at least three weeks away,” Faiz Shakir, the campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders, said in a statement. “Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign. In the immediate term, however, he is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable.”
Good. If Sanders focuses on coronavirus as a way to press his values rather than going hard—and often negative—in a primary that he basically can’t win at this point while it’s in limbo, it’s a win-win. We need every possible voice pushing for good coronavirus policy, and his is obviously a powerful one.