What happened on Super Tuesday?

After Joe Biden storied to victory in South Carolina, there was a rallying around the centrist candidate as both Buttigieg and Klobuchar pulled out of the race and joined former candidate Beto O’Rourke in endorsing Biden. Why did they do this? While this remains speculation: it does not seem unlikely that a potential cabinet or VP slot was offered in exchange for the support. It could have been, however, simply fear of Sanders taking control of the primary race and becoming the nominee. For whatever reason they did it, it worked.

With ever state being mostly reported, it seems like Biden has taken back control of the race. Winning in nine of the fourteen states voting, he stormed into the delegate lead for the first time in the race, uniting the centrist lane.

For Sanders, this lacklustre performance will hurt the enthusiasm of his campaign, not to mention hurting his chances of winning before a brokered convention which would probably go for Biden.

For the other candidates remaining, today will probably mark the end of the road. For Warren, the only candidate on the left other than Sanders, her campaign never really got going with a series of losses. However, her reluctance to withdraw has been seen as she would have been expected to pull out before this point, and still hasn’t despite thinly veiled encouragements from those who have previously backed her.

For Bloomberg, his half billion dollar spend seems to have failed, not winning a single state, only winning in American Samoa, where his spend was in only four digit dollar numbers. He is re-evaluating his campaign and seems destined to pull out before wasting more money on his doomed campaign.

American Samoa also paid dividends to the most forgotten candidate in the race: Tulsi Gabbard. The alleged Russian asset received a single delegate in the territory she was born in, which may qualify her for her first debate since November, but her campaign seems doomed to failure when her alleged Kremlin money dries up.

Originally published at https://spyglass-online.com on March 4, 2020.