Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at his Super Tuesday night rally in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 3, 2020.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Former Vice President Joe Biden will win the Massachusetts Democratic primary, according to an NBC News projection.
The result is a crushing blow to rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who represents the state.
Just a handful of Democratic candidates competed for Massachusetts’ 91 delegates on Super Tuesday, when 14 states hold their primary elections. At its height, the primary field comprised more than two dozen Democrats jockeying for position in the race to take on Trump in 2020.
For Warren’s campaign, Super Tuesday was set to be a make-or-break event. A WBUR poll released less than a week before the Bay State primary showed Sen. Bernie Sanders, the overall front-runner heading into Super Tuesday, edging out Warren, the state’s own candidate.
Warren, who was once a top contender in the primary race, likely already faced significant pressure to end her campaign before the poll was released. She finished third place in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus, fourth in New Hampshire and Nevada, and fifth in South Carolina.
Perhaps more than any other state, Biden’s projected win in Massachusetts embodies the rapid transformation of his campaign, from a declining enterprise to a top competitor in barely over a week.
Political commentators were writing off Biden’s White House bid as recently as mid-February, following a string of lackluster performances in the first few primary states.
But Biden maintained that his strategy hinged on South Carolina, where he was expected to find much support with the state’s high proportion of black voters.
An endorsement from House Majority Whip James Clyburn on the eve of South Carolina’s primary on Saturday was widely seen as a crucial boost for Biden in the Palmetto state.
The momentum Biden gained after winning big in South Carolina appears to have carried over to Super Tuesday — particularly in states like Massachusetts, where recent polls showed Biden wasn’t even considered a front-runner.
On Monday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota announced she would end her campaign. She endorsed Biden at a rally in Dallas later that day.
Klobuchar’s announcement came a day after former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the contest. Buttigieg, the youngest candidate in the race, called it quits after a fourth-place finish in the South Carolina primary Saturday.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer threw in the towel Saturday, just hours after it became clear that the tens of millions of dollars Steyer spent in South Carolina would fail to net him any delegates there.
By the end of January, Steyer spent a total of $253.7 million on his campaign, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
