IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.
EVENT ENDED
Last updated

March 10 primaries live updates: Biden bests Sanders in 4 states

Biden won in delegate-rich Michigan, along with Missouri and Mississippi, according to NBC News projections. Washington was too close to call.
Chelsea Stahl / NBC News

Joe Biden won the Democratic primary in Michigan Tuesday, NBC News projected, and further extended his delegate lead over Bernie Sanders with additional wins in Mississippi and Missouri and Idaho.

Get the latest race results and delegate totals

Sanders won North Dakota, NBC News projected Wednesday morning, but Washington's primary election remains too close to call. More than 350 delegates will ultimately be allocated from the six states that voted Tuesday — the fourth-largest day on the primary calendar for the Democratic candidates.

Highlights from Tuesday's election:

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts on the latest news.

NBC News projects Joe Biden wins Washington state primary

NBC News projects that former Vice President Joe Biden has won the Democratic primary in Washington state.

With 99 percent of the vote in Monday night, Biden was leading Bernie Sanders by 37.9 percent to 36.4 percent.

The pair appear tied for delegates from the state so far, with each getting 39, but the loss of the popular vote in Washington dampens Sanders' presidential hopes.

Washington, one of six states that had primaries on March 10, has a total of 89 delegates.

Read the story here.

Sanders wins delegate-rich California, NBC News projects

Dartunorro Clark

NBC News projected on Thursday that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., won the Democratic primary in California, the state with the largest amount of Super Tuesday delegates.

With 88 percent of the vote in, the Vermont lawmaker leads with 34.3 percent of the vote. Former vice president Joe Biden is in second place with 27.6 percent.

California has 415 delegates at stake. Currently, Sanders picked up 202 delegates from the state to Biden's 148, according to NBC News.

Click here to read more.

States urge alternative voting methods ahead of Tuesday primaries

As coronavirus continues to spread, election officials in the four states holding presidential primaries next Tuesday are encouraging Americans to vote by unconventional means to avoid crowds.

That usually means voting by mail or voting early to avoid large crowds in states where those things are an option — as is the case in those holding primaries March 17.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the coronavirus a pandemic Wednesday, and has recommended that election officials“[e]ncourage voters to use voting methods that minimize direct contact with other people and reduce crowd size at polling stations.”

“We have really been pushing as much as we can for voters who are concerned by polling places to take advantage of voting by mail,” Matt Dietrich, public affairs officer at the Illinois State Board of Elections, told NBC News. “That’s obviously the easiest way to avoid any kind of exposure to crowds, or lines or other people.”

Read the story.

Biden names Jen O'Malley Dillion as new campaign manager

Former Vice President Joe Biden is naming Jen O’Malley Dillion as his new campaign manager, a major organizational shake-up that comes as he prepares to expand his campaign operations and shift his focus to the general election.

O’Malley Dillion, 43, was the deputy campaign manager for President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign and served as the executive director for the Democratic National Committee during Obama’s first term.

Most recently, O’Malley Dillion joined former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s long-shot presidential bid as campaign manager based in El Paso. O’Rourke dropped out of the race in November and endorsed Biden in March.

Read the story.

The Democratic National Committee on Thursday announced that Sunday's primary debate will be moved from Phoenix to Washington, D.C., as the nation grapples with the coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier this week, as Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders began canceling campaign rallies, the DNC announced the debate would no longer feature a live audience while CNN, the debate's host, said the traditional spin and press rooms would be scrapped.

"Out of an abundance of caution and in order to reduce cross-country travel, all parties have decided that the best path forward is to hold Sunday’s debate at CNN’s studio in Washington, D.C., with no live audience," DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement.

Read the story.

Biden's delicate dance to win over the 'Bernie Brothers'

Joe Biden is winning the delegate race over Bernie Sanders. Now comes the hard part — winning over Sanders' supporters.

"Bernie brothers," as Biden himself called them at a fundraiser last week, are known for their loyalty to the senator from Vermont and their defections in 2016 to Donald Trump and third-party candidates may have contributed to Hillary Clinton's loss.

At the end of their long, bitter primary, Clinton put the onus on Sanders to bring his backers into the fold. To avoid a repeat of four years ago, Biden will likely have to be more proactive and not count on Sanders to do the work unifying the party for him — even if that means the former vice president will have to turn the other cheek to ongoing attacks and rein in his own supporters' desire to gloat or to speed Sanders' exit.

Read the full story here.

Biden changes two upcoming rallies to 'virtual events' due to coronavirus

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Joe Biden has changed two upcoming campaign events to be "virtual events" with no large crowds attending.

A previously scheduled Friday event in Chicago and a previously scheduled Monday event in Miami will now both be "virtual" events, Biden’s campaign said Wednesday.

"The health and safety of the public is our number one priority. We have been and will continue to consult with relevant officials, including our recently announced Public Health Advisory Committee, regarding steps the campaign should take to minimize health risks for staff and supporters," the campaign said. "As a result of those conversations and at the request of elected officials in Illinois and Florida, we will no longer hold large crowd events on Friday and Monday in those states."

The campaign said it will provide additional  details about the format and timing of the virtual events — and on future campaign events — "in the coming days."

Biden says Yang among 'brightest minds' in endorsement thank-you

Sanders nabs nurses' nod ahead of crucial primaries

Biden campaign forms coronavirus advisory committee

Joe Biden's presidential campaign has formed a public health advisory committee to assist it with responding to the rapidly spreading coronavirus.

In a statement, the Biden campaign said it formed the body "to provide science-based, expert advice regarding steps the campaign should take to minimize health risks for the candidate, staff, and supporters."

"Members of the committee will provide ongoing counsel to the campaign, which will in turn continue to update the public regarding operational decisions," the campaign said.

The campaign said the committee would consist of six members — all doctors or former government officials  — including Dr. Zeke Emanuel, a noted oncologist, the vice provost of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and the brother of former Obama chief of staff, Rahm Emanual.

The formation of the committee comes one day after Biden canceled a campaign event Thursday in Tampa, Fla., and replaced it with a speech on the coronavirus epidemic in his hometown, Wilmington, Del.

Bloomberg releases anti-Trump campaign ads to wider public

Dartunorro Clark

Voters in key battleground and Democratic primary states were inundated with ads from former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who ended his presidential bid earlier this month. Now, his campaign is making those ads available to the wider public.   

The billionaire businessman, who was roundly criticized for his runaway spending during the campaign, spent $275 million alone on anti-Trump ads since December 2019, his campaign announced on Wednesday. 

As of Bloomberg’s final day on the trail, he spent more than $445 million in TV/radio advertising in total on his campaign. His campaign said that ads were placed to "remind voters of Trump’s failures and broken promises while in office." 

The campaign is now making all of its "creative assets" and ads available so members of the public can share "on their own networks." Bloomberg's campaign spent more than $175 million in local markets, including all battleground states, and more than $45 million nationally. It created 31 different TV spots and spent nearly $50 million in digital anti-Trump ads.

Click here to view the ads. 

Sanders says he's staying in the race

+2

Shaquille Brewster

Allan Smith, Gary Grumbach and Shaquille Brewster

Bernie Sanders said Wednesday he is pushing forward with his campaign a day after Joe Biden won big victories in a number of states, widening his delegate lead.

Addressing the media in Burlington, Vermont, Sanders acknowledged Biden's front-runner status and focused his remarks on issues he plans to press the former vice president on during Sunday night's debate.

"Last night, obviously, was not a good night for our campaign from a delegate point of view," he said, adding, "While we are currently losing the delegate count ... we are strongly winning in two enormously important areas which will determine the future of our country."

Read the full story.

OPINION: NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio says Sanders' primary battle isn't finished yet

Bill de Blasio

The only way to beat President Donald Trump in November is for Democrats to be self-critical about what went wrong in 2016 and fix those mistakes. We failed to connect enough with the working-class voters who should be the backbone of our party. We didn’t get enough young people and voters of color out to the polls. And we underestimated the power of an energized political movement — both on the left and the right.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and not former Vice President Joe Biden, is the antidote to each of those problems in 2020 — but political pundits have all but declared the Democratic primary over and the latter the winner.

That, despite the fact that there are still millions of ballots to be cast and more than 2,300 delegates to be awarded as of Wednesday morning. But they are foolish to dismiss my friend Bernie so easily.

Click here for the full op-ed.  

After endorsing Biden, Yang shows Sanders some love

Balancing the ticket: Stacey Abrams, Kamala Harris top VP picks for 'She the People'

Stacey Abrams and Kamala Harris are the leading Democratic vice-presidential picks among members of an influential group of women of color, according to an internal poll by She the People.

Women of color are among the most loyal Democratic voters in the country — 94 percent of black women voted for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016, according to exit polls — making their preferences especially relevant to Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders, the only two presidential candidates to emerge from the most diverse candidate field in history.

Because both are white men in their 70s, whoever wins the nomination is expected to face pressure to pick a woman and/or a person of color as a running mate.

"We need record-high voter turnout of women of color to win battleground states in November. Now that both frontrunners are white men, alarm bells should be ringing for Democrats," said Aimee Allison, the founder and president of She the People, which shared its survey with NBC News. "They need a woman of color for vice president to inspire the base or they risk losing the White House."

Read the full story here.

A brief history of when Democratic debates have ended

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords endorses Biden a week before Arizona primary

NBC News

FIRST READ: Biden takes command of race, leaving Sanders with difficult questions

+2

Mark Murray

Carrie Dann

Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann

Halfway through the primary contests, more Democratic voters have made it abundantly clear that they want Joe Biden’s restoration over Bernie Sanders’ revolution.

That’s the message from last night’s decisive Biden victories in Mississippi (where he’s ahead 81 percent to 14.8 percent), Missouri (60 percent to 35 percent), Michigan (53 percent to 37 percent) and even Idaho (49 percent to 43 percent). (NBC News’ Decision Desk says that Washington state, where Sanders is ahead by 2,000 votes with 69 percent in,  is “too close to call,” and NBC just projected Sanders the winner of North Dakota’s caucuses).

So in the 20 Democratic contests beginning with Super Tuesday last week, African Americans, older voters, moderates and voters who call themselves somewhat (but not very) liberal overwhelmingly broken for Biden — and many of those are the most reliable voting blocs for Democrats. That’s compared with younger voters, very liberals and Latinos who have sided with Sanders.

Get the rest of First Read.

Key takeaways from election night — and they aren't good news for Sanders

Bernie Sanders lost his make-or-break state of Michigan and Joe Biden delivered big victories that led Democratic elites to confidently declare him their presumptive nominee, marking a dizzying turnaround after the former vice president began the primaries 0-for-3.

Biden also won Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and Idaho, while Sanders prevailed in North Dakota, according to NBC News projections. Washington state, where the candidates were running neck and neck, was still too close to call on Wednesday, but Sanders appeared to be underperforming in most states that voted Tuesday compared to the huge victories he scored in them in his unsuccessful campaign in 2016.

Biden also expanded his already substantial lead in delegates.

Here's why Sanders' theory of the case fell short and four other takeaways from a pivotal night in the 2020 election.

ANALYSIS: Sanders divided Democrats and handed Biden the lion's share

Bernie Sanders is running the wrong campaign at the wrong time, and that is the greatest gift he could give Joe Biden.

In an election season in which most Democratic voters told candidates, party leaders and pollsters they cared only about beating President Donald Trump, Sanders focused first on smashing party pillars with a purist brand of progressive politics that demonized Democrats nearly as much as Republicans.

He chose to divide a party desperate for unity, and he ended up with the smaller share. Now, the rest of the party has turned on him.

Read the full analysis here.

Sanders wins North Dakota, NBC News projects

Rebecca Shabadis in Washington, D.C.

Bernie Sanders has won North Dakota's Democratic caucus, NBC News projected Wednesday morning. 

With 72 percent of the vote in, Sanders leads Biden in the state 53.3 percent to 39.8 percent as of 8 a.m. 

So far, Sanders has picked up 8 delegates in the state and Biden has picked up 6. 

Even with Sanders’ projected win, Biden still leads Sanders in the overall delegate count nationally, with Biden receiving 837 delegates to Sanders' 689.

Biden wins Idaho Democratic primary, NBC News projects

Biden wins the Idaho Democratic primary over Sanders, NBC News projects.

With 20 delegates up for grabs, Idaho was one of the smaller delegate prizes of the Democratic contests Tuesday night, and Sanders is likely to earn pledged delegates in the state.

With 96 percent of the vote counted, Biden led Sanders by 48.4 percent to 42.5 percent. 

As of 1:15 a.m. ET Wednesday, NBC News projected that Biden will be awarded nine pledged delegates from the state and that Sanders will be awarded eight.

Washington primary too close to call, NBC News projects

The Democratic primary in Washington is too close to call, NBC News projects. 

With 68 percent of the vote counted, Biden and Sanders were tied at 32.7 percent — with Biden ahead by a margin of 60 votes. 

In Washington, 89 pledged delegates are at stake.

Sanders press secretary downplays Tuesday losses, touts upcoming debate

NBC News Exit Poll: Late-deciding Washington voters go for Biden

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Nearly all of Washington’s vote is cast by mail and balloting started on Feb. 21, just as Bernie Sanders was scoring wins in the first few contests. Among the 1 in 4 primary voters in Washington who say they settled on a candidate in February, 35 percent supported Biden and 25 percent backed Sanders, the NBC News Exit Poll found. Candidates who have since dropped out of the race also received support from this group, including 19 percent for Warren and 10 percent for Bloomberg.

 

The NBC News Exit Poll finds that Biden had a much bigger advantage among the one in three primary voters who waited until this month to decide. He has a 64 percent to 17 percent advantage over Sanders among this group.

NBC News Exit Poll: In Washington, gender gap in vote preferences, enthusiasm for candidates

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

As Democratic voters cast their ballots in the presidential primary in Washington state, the NBC News Exit Poll shows a large gender gap in vote preferences among men and women.

Whereas women favor Joe Biden by a double-digit margin, men narrowly split for Bernie Sanders: 40 percent of Democratic men support Sanders compared with 35 percent who cast ballots for Biden. And though Elizabeth Warren dropped out well after votes had already been cast in the vote-by-mail state, women voted for her at higher rates compared with male voters.

Gender gaps in Washington also correspond to enthusiasm for the eventual Democratic nominee. Overall, nearly half of the women and men casting ballots in the Democratic primary in Washington say they would be enthusiastic or satisfied if either Biden or Sanders were the eventual nominee.

But men are more likely than women to say they would only be satisfied if Sanders was the eventual nominee: 23 percent of men compared with 16 percent of women.

In contrast, women are more likely to say they would only be satisfied with Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee against President Donald Trump this November.

Biden reaches out to Sanders and his supporters in post-election speech

Biden reached out to Sanders and his supporters in his post-election speech Tuesday night, coming on the tails of what's already been a very successful night for the former vice president — one that looks to have seriously wounded the Vermont senator's chances of winning the Democratic nomination.

"I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and their passion," Biden said. "We share a common goal. Together, we will defeat Donald Trump. We will defeat him together."

Biden opened his address talking about the coronavirus and his canceled Cleveland rally, saying he will have much more to say on it during a Thursday speech focused on the crisis.

"This whole coronavirus issue is a matter of presidential leadership," he said,

He then proceeded to discuss his surging campaign, which he said was declared "dead" by pundits and experts just weeks earlier.

"Now we're very much alive," he said, adding that his comeback is "more than a comeback" but "a comeback for the soul of this nation."

His goal, Biden said, is to return "decency and honor to the White House," and he talked of expanding health care, taking on the gun lobby, bolstering the middle class and America's presence on the world stage.

The "days of divisiveness will soon be over," he said, adding that America is "better than this moment that we're in."

Washington, Idaho polls close, and the races are too early to call

Polls have closed in the final two states of the evening — Washington and Idaho — but the two races are too early to call, according to NBC News projections.

Polls closed in the two states at 11:00 p.m. ET. 

In Washington, 89 pledged delegates are up for grabs, while in Idaho, 20 are at stake.

NBC News Exit Poll: Biden wins white, college-educated women

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Before she dropped out of the race, Elizabeth Warren counted white women with a college degree among her core blocs of support. This group represents one-fifth of all Democratic primary voters to date but made up nearly twice that portion in Warren’s camp. A key question coming into today was where that support would go.

Biden appears to be the big winner among this group, going from 30 percent support among white, college-educated women in prior contests to 55 percent today, according to an NBC News Exit Poll.

Sanders also made gains with this group, but by a much smaller margin, going from 21 percent to 30 percent.

It’s worth noting that 1 in 4 white women with a college degree were supporting candidates other than Biden, Sanders and Warren in prior contests. It is likely that much of their support went to Biden after those other candidates ended their presidential campaigns.

Sanders won't speak Tuesday night

Sanders, who as of 10:30 p.m. ET had yet to win a single one of Tuesday's contests, does not plan on speaking Tuesday night, a senior aide to the Vermont senator told NBC News.

After canceling a rally in Cleveland due to the concerns over the coronavirus, Sanders flew back to Burlington, Vermont, earlier Tuesday night.

NBC News has projected Biden victories over Sanders in the Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi primaries. North Dakota’s caucuses remain too early to call and polls in Washington state and Idaho close later in the evening.

NBC News Exit Poll: State voters were looking for different candidate qualities

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

According to the NBC News Exit Poll, Democratic primary voters in 2020 have value two candidate qualities — the ability to bring about needed change and the ability to unite the country — when deciding how to vote.

About one third each have looked for someone who can bring about change or for someone who can unite the country. The NBC News Exit Poll finds there is a difference of opinion across the four largest states voting today as to which quality mattered the most.

Voters in Michigan and Missouri were more likely than those in Mississippi and Washington to want a change agent.

The opposite was true for wanting a uniter. The 40 percent in Michigan who were looking to bring about change was close to the high mark set in Vermont (43 percent), while Washington’s 26 percent who want change is second lowest after Colorado (19 percent). 

On the other hand, the 41 percent in Washington who want to unite the country matches the prior high set in Colorado, while Michigan’s 28 percent result on this quality comes in under the prior low set by Vermont and South Carolina (29 percent each).

The view from Biden world tonight

The Biden campaign had hoped to mark tonight’s primary with a big rally in Cleveland, getting a jump-start on next week’s Ohio primary. One consequence of tonight’s abrupt location change is that the former vice president can celebrate another night of significant wins with dozens of young campaign workers who have made their way here from the downtown Philadelphia headquarters to the National Constitution Center, where the backdrop for Biden’s remarks will be an array of state flags.

Biden advisers say they're of course happy with the topline results — early calls in Mississippi, Missouri and the big prize of Michigan. Michigan is especially a welcome result that the Biden team had been carefully managing expectations about all week, given what Bernie Sanders did to Hillary Clinton there in 2016 and the fact that up until very recently, the Biden team has not been able to afford its own polling for months.

But below the toppling results, Biden's analytics team is closely looking at two big data points that will be key to their strategy and messaging: overall turnout and results from specific heavily targeted congressional districts.

Going forward, Biden’s remarks on the coronavirus Thursday will be the latest effort by the campaign to seize what they see as a presidential moment when the country needs reassurance at a time of crisis. Campaign events already scheduled in states beyond Thursday’s canceled Tampa rally (Chicago on Friday, and Miami on Monday) are certainly subject to change as they evaluate the recommendations from experts and take their cues from local leadership, as the Biden team did from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday. 

Clyburn: Cancel the primary if Sanders loses big tonight

If Joe Biden wins really big tonight, Rep. Jim Clyburn wants the Democratic National Committee to end the primary.

The South Carolina Democrat — whose endorsement of the former vice president propelled him to a decisive victory in the state, a pivotal moment for the campaign — said the DNC should cancel the rest of the primary if Sanders does poorly.

"I think we will be at the point where Joe Biden will be the prohibitive nominee of the party and I think the DNC, the Democratic National Committee should step in, make an assessment and determination whether or not we should have any more debates," he said on NPR.

Andrew Yang endorses Biden

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang endorsed Joe Biden on CNN on Tuesday night.

Yang's endorsement came after Biden won Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi, according to an NBC News projection.

Yang is the latest ex-candidate to throw his support behind the former vice president. Biden has also picked up endorsements from Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Mike Bloomberg and Amy Klobuchar in recent days as he shores up support in the center-left lane.

NBC News Exit Poll: More Biden voters than Sanders voters today say they will support party nominee

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Throughout the primary season, more than 8 in 10 Democratic primary voters have said they will vote for their party’s eventual nominee in November, according to an NBC News Exit Poll.  

There has been a small gap between supporters of Biden and Sanders in this commitment, though, and that gap has widened slightly among primary voters today, according to the exit poll.

 

In primaries held before today, 87 percent of Biden voters and 83 percent of Sanders voters said they would back the party’s eventual nominee in the general election. Among those who participated in today’s primaries, that commitment stands at 91 percent among Biden voters and 81 percent among Sanders voters.

Leaders of Democrats' two biggest super PACs call race for Joe Biden

Two of the biggest super PACs in the Democratic Party, which have remained neutral in the primary so far, effectively called the race for Joe Biden over Bernie Sanders after the former vice president won Michigan's primary.

"The math is now clear. Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee for President," tweeted Guy Cecil, the chairman of Priorities USA, which spent almost $200 million in the 2016 presidential election.

Cecil added that his group, which was founded to help former President Barack Obama's re-election in 2012, would "do everything we can to help (Biden) defeat Donald Trump in November."

Bradley Beychok, the head of American Bridge, another large Democratic super PAC that focuses on opposition research, seconded the sentiment.

Klobuchar cheers Biden's 'M state streak'

Young voters in Michigan face hours-long line, same day voter registration to blame

+2

Jareen Imam

Janine Phakdeetham

Jareen Imam, Janine Phakdeetham and Caitlin Fichtel

Videos and photos circulating online Tuesday night show long lines wrapping down hallways and staircases in various polling locations as young voters waited for hours to cast their ballots in Michigan cities like Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor and East Lansing.

Colin Sherrod, 21, a college student at Michigan State University, waited over more than two hours to cast his ballot for Bernie Sanders. He registered on Tuesday and believes that’s one of the reasons why the voting lines seem excessively long.

"I think the main issue was because so many people tried to register on the same day. I’ve heard that wait time grew to four hours after I left," he told NBC News.

Officials in Ann Arbor also blamed same-day registered for the long lines.

"Ann Arbor has no waiting for people who are registered. Same-day voter registration, and everyone who isn’t registered, have been coming to the Clerk's Office,” City Clerk Jacqueline Beaudry said. "We have registered to close 1,000 people. This is the first time we have implemented this."

Michigan State University College Democrats told NBC News that polling stations were ill-prepared to deal with the amount of students that turned up to vote and information about how to register wasn’t communicated well. 

"Student groups on campus are trying to keep voters in line by having food and drinks at the polls to keep people spirits up and make sure they vote," the group said in a statement. 

NBC News Exit Poll: Union voters in Michigan and Missouri favor Biden

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Biden held a clear advantage among union voters in two key contests tonight. In Michigan, where 3 in 10 voters live in union households, he won 54 percent of voters while Sanders won 42 percent, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. In Missouri, where 1 in 4 primary voters were union affiliated, Biden held a 60 percent to 35 percent edge.

NBC News Exit Poll: Support from key groups fueled Biden’s Michigan victory

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

A repeat performance of Bernie Sanders' surprise 2016 victory in Michigan was not on the cards for 2020.

The NBC News Exit Poll shows that Joe Biden won the state tonight with two-thirds of the vote from black voters, voters 45 or older, moderates and conservatives, and voters who made up their minds this month. 

Biden was also the clear favorite of voters looking for someone who can unite the country (82 percent) and voters whose top priority is beating Trump (61 percent).

Biden wins Michigan Democratic primary, NBC News projects

Biden wins the Michigan Democratic primary over Sanders, NBC News projects.

With 125 delegates up for grabs, Michigan offers the biggest pledged delegate prize of the six states holding Democratic contests on Tuesday night. 

With more than half of the vote counted, Biden led Sanders 53 percent to 41 percent. 

As of 9:05 p.m. ET, NBC News projected that Biden will be awarded 38 pledged delegates from the state and Sanders will be awarded 33.

The NBC News exit poll from Michigan shows that Biden won the state with two-thirds of black voters, two-thirds of voters age 45 or over, 63 percent of moderates and conservatives, and 63 percent of voters who made up their minds this month. 

Biden was also the clear favorite of voters looking for someone who can unite the country (82 percent) and voters whose top priority is beating Donald Trump (61 percent).

 

Massive swing in large Michigan county from 2016 to 2020 could spell bad news for Sanders

Michigan results are trickling in as the final polls closed, and results in one large county show a huge swing from 2016 to 2020.

In Kalamazoo County — home of Western Michigan University and one of the state's 10 largest counties — Sanders is currently up by less than a point over Biden.

In 2016, when Sanders narrowly won the state, the Vermont senator won that county by nearly 23 points.

As is, Biden holds a nearly 10 point lead in the state with 32 percent of precincts reporting.

NBC News Exit Poll: Broad support underpins Biden’s Missouri victory

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

NBC News projected that Biden is the Democratic primary winner in Missouri, a state where the prior two Democratic primaries were decided by the thinnest of margins.

The NBC News Exit Poll shows that Biden’s support was broad-based, with especially strong backing among black voters and voters 45 or older. Biden was also the clear favorite of voters looking for someone who can unite the country and voters whose top priority is beating Donald Trump.

The race was fairly tight among the one quarter of Missouri primary voters who made up their minds in the last few days.

Sanders actually eked out a 51 percent to 45 percent edge among these voters, but Biden received a much larger cushion among those who came to a decision earlier this month, basically after the South Carolina and Super Tuesday results came in. Biden won this group by a 70 percent to 26 percent margin.

Biden wins Missouri Democratic primary, NBC News projects

Biden wins the the Democratic primary in Missouri over Sanders, NBC News projects.

Both Biden and Sanders, however, will reach the necessary threshold to be awarded pledged delegates, NBC News projects.

Biden will be awarded 22 pledged delegates and Sanders will be awarded 15, as of 8:20 p.m. ET, according to NBC News.

There are 68 pledged delegates at stake in Missouri.

NBC News Exit Poll: Biden continues to run up score in South with win in Mississippi

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Joe Biden added another Southern state to his primary scorecard tonight, scoring a huge win in the Mississippi primary contest. NBC News projected that Biden was the winner in the state at poll close.

According to results from the NBC News Exit Poll, the former vice president enjoyed a solid backing from the state’s sizable African American electorate, as we all as a strong showing among ideological moderates and those who attend religious services weekly or more.

Biden was the clear favorite among most demographic groups, including whites (66 percent), voters with no college degree (78 percent) and liberal voters (66 percent). But even as Biden racked up support among a broad coalition of voters, Sanders outperformed his 2016 margins among some groups.

In 2016, Clinton bested Sanders among liberal voters, as well as those younger than 45, but Sanders fared better among these groups compared to his lackluster performance among older, more moderate-leaning groups. Today, Sanders improved his margins among both groups, seeing double-digit increases in support among voters who consider themselves liberal on political matters, as well as those younger than 45.

But these gains were offset by the fact that tonight’s Mississippi Democratic primary electorate skewed older and more moderate than it did in 2016.

Biden wins Mississippi primary, NBC News projects

Joe Biden wins the Mississippi Democratic primary over Bernie Sanders, NBC News projects. 

Biden has been awarded 21 delegates of the state's 36 pledged delegates. He had been expected to prevail in Mississippi and add to his delegate lead due to strong support from African American voters.

The Democratic primary in Missouri is too early to call, but Biden leads, according to NBC News.

North Dakota’s Democratic caucuses are also too early to call. 

There are 68 delegates at stake in Missouri. Fourteen are up for grabs in North Dakota.

Polls in the three states were the first to close among the six states voting Tuesday. The other states voting are Michigan, Washington and Idaho.

NBC News Exit Poll: In Missouri, fewer under 45 and black voters compared to 2016

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

There have been some shifts in the demographic profile of Missouri's primary voters since that 2016, when a razor thin margin of just over 1,000 votes separated Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the state.

Compared to four years ago, today’s Missouri Democratic electorate has fewer voters younger than 45, fewer black voters, and fewer self-described liberals, according to the NBC News Exit Poll results. It also has slightly fewer first time primary voters than in 2016.

Amid coronavirus outbreak, Trump still doesn't have any rallies planned

Vice President Mike Pence was asked at the White House coronavirus briefing on Tuesday whether the campaign will continue to have rallies amid coronavirus concerns. He told reporters: "I think that'll be a decision that’s made literally on a day-to-day basis" and "I’m very confident that the campaign will take the very best information and make the very best decision going forward."

The situation is clearly very fluid, given that the Trump campaign said they "expected" to reveal on Tuesday where the next rally would be but that was before the Biden and Sanders campaigns canceled their respective events in Ohio tonight. Of course, the day is not over so this Trump campaign announcement could still come but wanted everyone to have the proper context going into any such development.

See below for more on the events the campaign has "postponed" in recent days citing "scheduling conflicts," despite a claim they are "proceeding normally" (a "Women for Trump" bus tour through MI, WI, PA this week and a rare FLOTUS fundraiser in Beverly Hills on March 18). No information yet on future dates for either of these.

NBC News Exit Poll: In primaries so far, Democratic anger toward Trump highest in Washington

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Over the course of the primary season, about 2 in 3 Democratic primary voters have said they feel angry about Donald Trump’s administration, while 1 in 4 are dissatisfied, and only 8 percent report having positive views of the current president, according to results from the NBC News Exit Poll.

In states voting today, feelings of anger range from 83 percent of primary voters in Washington to 49 percent in Mississippi, early results from the NBC News Exit Poll found. Missouri and Michigan are on par with the primary average to date.

Prior to today’s contests, the highest level of anger toward Trump was 79 percent in New Hampshire’s primary. 

Democrats in Southern states have tended to express lower levels of anger about the current administration. The level in Mississippi’s electorate is just slightly above the low of 47 percent registered in South Carolina’s primary.

 

 

Michigan not expected to report primary results until Wednesday afternoon

A spokesperson for Michigan’s office of the secretary of state — which runs the state's elections — said on a conference call Tuesday night that they don’t expect to have full reporting of the results from the state’s Democratic primary until the early afternoon of Wednesday, due to a wide disparity in how fast precincts are able to count votes.

Earlier Tuesday, Michigan’s office of the secretary of state said that it was expecting delays in the reporting of results of its primary Tuesday night due to the huge backlog of absentee votes.

Since Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson took office in 2019, Michigan has expanded voting options for citizens, including giving all voters the option to vote by mail and later voter registration.

That, however, has led to the state sending off nearly 1 million absentee ballots for the 2020 primary, with more than 800,000 of them already returned. That number includes the 36,574 ballots that were already spoiled — a unique rule in Michigan that allows residents who have already cast an absentee to change their vote

But under Michigan law, absentee ballots can't even be opened until Election Day morning, leading to fears of long delays before precincts can produce a final count.

"Current state law hasn't really caught up," Jake Rollow, a spokesperson for Benson's office, told NBC News.

NBC News Exit Poll: Most Mississippi Democrats support 'Medicare for All'

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Sizable shares of Mississippi Democratic primary voters support "Medicare for All," according to early results from the NBC News Exit Poll.

Fully 6 in 10 say they support replacing all private health insurance with a single government plan for everyone. About half as many, 32 percent, say they oppose the plan.

Though most Democratic voters who have cast ballots in the 2020 primary race so far have favored "Medicare for All," there is some variation in support state to state.

Compared with other Southern states that held contests prior to March 10, larger majorities of Mississippi Democratic primary voters support this policy. 

Smaller majorities of Democrats in Tennessee, Virginia and Alabama say they favor "Medicare for All."

NBC News Exit Poll: Most Missouri voters feel their finances are holding steady

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Just over 6 in 10 Missouri primary voters say their family’s financial situation is holding steady, according to early results from the NBC News Exit Poll. Another 24 percent are getting ahead and 11 percent feel they are falling behind. 

There are no differences in these results among supporters of the two remaining Democratic candidates.

Despite this relative stability, half of Democratic primary voters in Missouri say the country’s economic system needs a complete overhaul, while 41 percent say it only needs minor changes and 8 percent say it works well enough as is. 

Voters earning less than $50,000 a year (58 percent) are more likely than those who are in a higher income bracket (43 percent) to say the system needs an overhaul. Missouri’s 3.4 percent unemployment rate is just under the national average of 3.6 percent. 

Sanders, Biden cancel rallies because of coronavirus fears

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden canceled campaign rallies planned for Tuesday night in Cleveland due to concerns about the coronavirus, a first on the 2020 presidential campaign trail as concerns about the outbreak mount.

"Out of concern for public health and safety, we are canceling tonight’s rally in Cleveland," Sanders' campaign communications director Mike Casca said in a statement. "We are heeding the public warnings from Ohio state officials, who have communicated concern about holding large, indoor events during the coronavirus outbreak."

Casca added that the Vermont senator "would like to express his regret to the thousands of Ohioans who had planned to attend the event tonight" and said, "all future Bernie 2020 events will be evaluated on a case by case basis."

Hand sanitizers, elbow bumps in lieu of handshakes, and shorter rope lines have already quickly become the new reality of campaigning in the time of the coronavirus.

A debate scheduled for Sunday in Phoenix between Sanders and Biden is currently scheduled to proceed, but the Democratic National Committee and CNN, which is hosting the debate, have said they are in contact with local officials and will follow their guidance.

NBC News Exit Poll: Compared to 2016, Mississippi Democratic primary electorate looks whiter, older

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

According to early results from the NBC News Exit Poll, the Mississippi Democratic primary electorate skews slightly older and whiter than it did in 2016.

In today’s primary race, white voters make up roughly 3 in 10 of those casting ballots in the Mississippi contest. This compares with just a quarter who were white in the Clinton versus Sanders matchup four years ago. In 2016, Sanders did slightly better among white voters than he did among blacks.

Today’s primary electorate also looks considerably older than it did four years ago: In 2016, 4 in 10 were younger than 45 years of age, while a majority were older 45. Today, early exit poll results show that young voters make up just a quarter of the electorate. 

Sanders will also look to shore up support among the state’s ideologically liberal voters. In the Super Tuesday contests, Sanders held his own among the South’s very liberal voters, faring much better among this group than moderate and conservative-leaning Democrats.

The ideological complexion of today’s electorate looks fairly similar to 2016: similar shares call themselves very liberal on political matters, but a slightly higher share call themselves moderate or conservative compared with four years ago.

ANALYSIS: Biden's tough talk a new tack for Democrats

President Donald Trump turned insulting big-name rivals and celebrities into a form of modern political art. His top Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, has refined it into a post-modern name-calling style exhibited in limited fashion to voters who confront him with cheap shots.

"Don't be such a horse's ass," Biden scolded a worker at an auto plant in Detroit on Tuesday as Michigan voters went to the polls.

The worker had falsely asserted that Biden wants to "end our Second Amendment right" to own guns. Biden, the author of a decadelong 1994 ban on certain semi-automatic weapons, has proposed new gun control measures but not a repeal of the Second Amendment — which as president he would have no formal role in adopting.

But the heated exchange, in which Biden threatened to slap the man and said he was "full of s—," was just the latest example of a tough-talk tactic the former vice president has deployed repeatedly to push back on critics on the campaign trail. While allies of Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders say the aggressive approach will backfire politically, many Democrats and some anti-Trump Republicans like the unusually muscular response.

Read the full analysis here.

Trump campaign and supporters spread misleading Sanders video

A misleadingly edited video of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was released by President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign on Tuesday and spread by conservative allies.

The video, in which the Democratic presidential candidate appears to say he would not close the borders to protect Americans from the coronavirus, was cut from a detailed answer Sanders gave at a Fox News town hall on Monday in which he said, "We need scientists to tell us the appropriate approach, not a political approach.”

The Sanders clip was posted just days after Twitter labeled a video of Biden, similarly edited to look as if he was endorsing Trump’s reelection, as “manipulated media,” and Facebook published a warning that called the video “partly false.” It was one of the first instances of social media platforms deploying new policies meant to curb political misinformation released by a 2020 candidate. 

By Tuesday afternoon, the most widely shared versions of the deceptively edited Sanders video had been viewed more than 600,000 times on Twitter, with most of the traffic coming by way of Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative group Turning Point USA.

A Twitter spokesperson said the tweet would not be labeled under their synthetic and manipulated media policy “as the alteration does not completely distort the meaning of his answer.”

NBC News Exit Poll: Primary voters prioritize beating Trump but levels differ by preferred candidate

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Democratic primary voters continue to say nominating a candidate who can beat Donald Trump was a more important factor in their votes than supporting someone who agrees with them on major issues, according to the NBC News Exit Poll.

Across Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and Washington, 61 percent said they prioritized beating Trump and 36 percent said they prioritized issues, the NBC News Exit Poll found. This is nearly identical to exit poll results from prior contests, which showed 63 percent prioritized defeating Trump while 34 percent preferred issue alignment. 

Among supporters of Biden in today’s primaries, 71 percent prioritized defeating Trump, which is identical to the views of his supporters in earlier contests. Among Bernie Sanders voters, only 46 percent prioritized beating Trump, which is down slightly from prior contests.

The number of Democratic primary voters today who prioritized beating the incumbent ranged from 69 percent in Washington, to 59 percent in Missouri, 57 percent in Michigan and 53 percent in Mississippi.

Check out anonymous voter confessions from tonight's primary states

NBC News Exit Poll: Mississippi has highest share of black voters in Democratic contests so far

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

As Sanders and Biden square off in Mississippi tonight, the electorate is shaping to be one of the most racially diverse of the Democratic contests so far. According to early NBC News Exit Polls, black voters make up roughly two-thirds of those casting ballots in the Mississippi primary — higher than the share of black voters in South Carolina, Alabama and Virginia.

Biden picked up considerable momentum in the 2020 primary race after a landslide victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary, which came thanks to a resounding surge of support from the state’s sizable African American electorate.

He was also favored heavily among black voters in the South in Super Tuesday’s primaries: 65 percent of black voters in South Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee cast votes for the former vice president. Smaller shares favored Sanders (16 percent) or Bloomberg (9 percent). 

NBC News Exit Poll: Most Washington primary voters are concerned with the coronavirus outbreak

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

The NBC News Exit Poll finds the vast majority of Democratic primary voters in Washington are concerned about the coronavirus outbreak. This includes 38 percent who are very concerned and 44 percent who are somewhat concerned. 

Voters age 45 and over (46 percent) are more likely than those under 45 years old (20 percent) to be very concerned about coronavirus.

 

The exit poll also asked Washington primary voters which candidate they would trust most to handle a major crisis.

Among those who trust Joe Biden more, 46 percent are very concerned about the outbreak. Among those who trust Bernie Sanders more, just 26 percent are very concerned.

According to the CDC, Washington state has the largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the nation. It is not clear what impact the outbreak has had on turnout since the Washington primary election is conducted almost entirely by mail.

Man intentionally crashes car into St. Louis polling station, police say

Jareen Imam

Jareen Imam and Shamar Walters

A man intentionally backed his car into a St. Louis polling station on Tuesday and then started throwing liquid on voting machines, police said.

Arlice Thompson, a 60-year-old St. Louis resident and poll worker, told NBC News she was helping a voter check in around 9:30 a.m. CT at Friendly Temple Missionary Church when “we heard this loud boom.”

“We thought something had exploded outside the building,” she said.

A polling station at Friendly Temple Missionary Church in St. Louis, Mo. was forced to move after a man intentionally crashed his vehicle into the building.
A polling station at Friendly Temple Missionary Church in St. Louis, Mo. was forced to move after a man intentionally crashed his vehicle into the building.Arlice Thompson

She said a man in his sixties had crashed his car into the side of the church and walked inside yelling obscenities. He then poured an unknown liquid from a gallon milk jug onto the floor and voting machines and started throwing chairs and tables around as witnesses called police.

The man was taken in custody and transported to a hospital for evaluation, according to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. There were no injuries.

Click here for the full story.

NBC News Exit Poll: Enthusiasm for Biden and Sanders as eventual nominee differs by state

NBC News Exit Poll Desk

Four in 10 primary voters in Missouri, Michigan and Washington would be satisfied if either Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders ended up as the Democratic nominee for president, according to early results from the NBC News Exit Polls in those states.

Among those who would only be happy with one of these outcomes, 1 in 3 would be satisfied with Biden as the party standard bearer and 1 in 5 would be satisfied only if it was Sanders.

Levels of enthusiasm for each candidate are different across the states.

In Missouri, more primary voters say they would be enthusiastic with Biden (45 percent) as the nominee than say the same about Sanders (31 percent). The reverse is true in Michigan with 38 percent enthusiastic about nominating Sanders and 32 percent saying the same about Biden. This result is evenly divided in Washington at 35 enthusiastic about Biden as the nominee and 35 percent enthusiastic if it is Sanders.

Even as some hold their noses, Detroit voters cast ballots with 'the ancestors' on their minds

Davinia Brown said she's been alarmed by the "really chaotic" Democratic primary. She hated watching the sniping and barbs when the campaign trail was crowded with candidates. 

"They just looked so terrible going after each other," she said.

Brown is also not sure that votes will be tallied fairly this year since she believes foul play might have "rigged" the 2016 election in favor of President Donald Trump.

But she wouldn't consider staying home on primary election day — and she wouldn't let her son stay home either.

"The ancestors fought so we have to vote," said Brown, 51, as she and her son Raymond Brown, 25, cast their ballots Tuesday morning at the Horatio Williams Foundation in Detroit's Lafayette Park, just east of  downtown. (He voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; she declined to name her pick).

"The ancestors stood in line," said Brown, an African-American human resources professional who lives in Lafayette Park. "They were beat. They had to take tests to vote."

"It's very important that we vote even though we believe that they're going to put whoever they want in office," she added.

Image: Davinia Brown
Davinia Brown, left, with her son, Raymond Brown.Courtesy of Davinia Brown

A lower African-American turnout in 2016 compared to 2012, when President Barack Obama was on the ballot, is often mentioned as a key reason why Trump won Michigan by an 11,000-vote margin in 2016.  

Brown doesn't think black voters will stay home this year since Trump is unpopular in Detroit and voters here learned their lesson, she said. "They've had an opportunity to witness things for themselves.

Rev. William Revely, 78, the African-American pastor of the Holy Hope Heritage Baptist Church on Detroit's west side, was casting his ballot "for Uncle Joe," meaning former Vice President Joe Biden, at an elementary school near his home in Lafayette Park.

He says his church has "several hundred" members who will be voting in large numbers this year.

"Folks have had enough of" Trump," Revely said. "They're going to turn out and the vote is going to be stronger this time."

Revely, who said he marched and protested during the civil rights movement, says he drives home the importance of voting with young people in his congregation.

"We went through too much to get the vote," he said.

Biden and Sanders seen as far more 'honest' than Clinton was in 2016: poll

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are both viewed by most Americans as honest, unlike Hillary Clinton around this time in 2016, according to new Quinnipiac poll data.

Fifty-one percent of Americans say Biden is honest, while 38 percent say he's not, according to the new survey released Monday. Sanders performed better, with 62 percent of Americans saying he's honest and 26 percent saying he's not.

By contrast, a Quinnipiac poll released in mid-February of 2016 found that Clinton was seen by just 30 percent of Americans as honest, while 67 percent said she was not.

The perception that Clinton was dishonest and untrustworthy dogged her throughout the 2016 campaign. Her numbers were even worse than then-candidate Donald Trump — 37 percent of Americans said four years ago that Trump was honest, while 59 percent said he was not.

Though it's still early, the new findings indicate that the Democratic nominee this fall won't have the same problem against Trump. The new poll found that his numbers are slightly worse today — just 33 percent of Americans say Trump is honest, while 63 percent say he's not.

Biden hurls curse word at worker who challenges him on guns

Marianna Sotomayor

Dartunorro Clark

Marianna Sotomayor and Dartunorro Clark

DETROIT — Former Vice President Joe Biden told a factory worker he was “full of s---” at a campaign event here after the man claimed the Democratic presidential candidate was going to take away his guns.

The heated altercation happened during a meet-and-greet with workers at a Fiat Chrysler assembly plant ahead of Michigan's crucial primary. While supporters were waiting in line, Biden was immediately confronted by a worker who claimed the former vice president would try to do away his Second Amendment right after seeing videos of him and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, talking gun control.

“You’re full of s---,” Biden said. “I did not.”

Read more about the exchange.

Washington state has advantage in addressing voters' virus fears

Washington, which had the first confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S., has a major advantage in addressing fears the virus could impact voting in Tuesday’s primary: it's a vote by mail state, and doesn't actually have physical polling places.

Nearly two dozen people have died in Washington, by far the most deaths recording in any state so far. 

There are several new precautions in place, said Kylee Zabel, spokesperson for the Washington Secretary of State's office. Voters are discouraged from licking their envelopes, and should use "a wet sponge or cloth" instead, Zabel said, and election workers should wear gloves to open ballots.

Two other states vote by mail and don't use physical polling places: Colorado, which voted March 3, and Oregon, which votes May 19.

Don't expect to see Michigan primary results Tuesday

Michigan expects delays in reporting the results of its primary due to the huge backlog of absentee votes.

Since Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson took office last year, Michigan has expanded voting options for citizens, including giving all voters the option to vote by mail and later voter registration. That's led to the state sending off nearly a million absentee ballots for the 2020 primary, with more than 800,000 of them already returned. That number includes the 36,574 ballots that were already spoiled, meaning people who voted early for a candidate who has dropped out can get their vote back.

But under Michigan law, absentee ballots can't even be opened until Election Day morning, leading to fears of long delays before precincts can produce a final count. "Current state law hasn't really caught up," said Jake Rollow, a spokesperson for Benson's office.

Many jurisdictions have responded by setting up "absentee voting counting boards," separate locations where poll workers and reps from each party are devoted to processing absentee ballots all day, Rollow said.

It's election day in Detroit, but it doesn't look like it

DETROIT — As voters in Michigan's largest city started arriving at schools and community centers to vote in the state's presidential primary on Tuesday, many were greeted by, well, not very much.

The area in front of polling places is typically busy and colorful on primary election day, as volunteers post signs and banners for their favorite candidates and greet voters with flyers in hopes of winning last-minute support.

But the lack of local races, the fact that Michigan recently changed its laws to allow voters to cast absentee ballots for any reason, and the recent drop in the number of candidates still vying for the Democratic presidential nomination left many polling places in Detroit eerily quiet.

Image: Bunche Preparatory Academy
It was quiet outside some polling places in Detroit, like this one at Bunche Preparatory Academy on the city's east side.Erin Einhorn / NBC News

An NBC reporter visited six polling places on the east side of Detroit on Tuesday morning and saw just one person outside of one of them — and she was working for a data company conducting an exit poll. 

The rest had little more than a sign that read "Vote Here," with no campaign volunteers or workers in sight.

"You're only looking at the Democratic Party and there's only two left, three left," said election worker Aaron Taylor, 53, referring to the remaining Democratic presidential candidates. "So there's no need to really be out here for that."

Taylor, who was taking a cigarette break outside the polling place at Detroit's Bunche Preparatory Academy, a public elementary school, said turnout has been "moderate" at his precinct. But he predicted the activity outside his poling place will return for the general election. 

"I'm pretty sure come November they'll be out here," he said. 

ANALYSIS: Why Sanders' uphill battle gets steeper as six states vote Tuesday

Steve Kornacki

It's not Super Tuesday, but there are six more Democratic contests coming up Tuesday. Joe Biden comes to them with a lead over Bernie Sanders in the overall delegate count, thanks to his victories in 10 states last week.

Now, Biden has an opportunity to build on his advantage, while Sanders is desperately seeking to put some headline-grabbing wins on the board.

Here's a look at the state of play in Tuesday's battlegrounds.

Why Biden's chance of beating Sanders is even bigger than it seems

David Wasserman

In a matter of 72 hours, Joe Biden parlayed a dominant victory in South Carolina into a steamrolling performance on Super Tuesday: He not only won substantially African American electorates like Alabama's and Virginia's, but he also carried Texas and scored huge coups by winning Massachusetts, Minnesota and Maine — all states thought to be favorable to Bernie Sanders.

And Biden did so without much of a personal, TV or field presence in any of them.

According to the latest NBC News projection, Biden leads Sanders by 513 to 461 in pledged delegates, with 105 for other candidates (1,991 are required to win the nomination). There are still millions of votes to count in California in the coming days, giving Sanders room to grow. But Biden's total will also grow as his best states are certified and delegates are awarded based on the results calculated in each congressional district.

Here are three reasons the former vice president is amassing what could be an insurmountable delegate lead.

How Bernie Sanders can stay competitive with wins in Michigan, Washington

5 things to watch on Super Tuesday II: Sanders' revolution faces a reckoning

Super Tuesday resurrected Joe Biden’s campaign and powered him into a delegate lead. Super Tuesday II must revive Bernie Sanders or the nomination could slip away from him again.

A new CNN poll shows Biden leading Sanders by a margin of 52 percent to 36 percent in a two-person race. The biggest dividing line is age — voters under 45 said they prefer Sanders by nearly 2-to-1, while voters 45 or older picked Biden by more than 4-to-1.

That generational gap looms over another big day of voting Tuesday, with Democratic voters in Michigan, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington set to deliver their verdict on who the party’s nominee to take on President Donald Trump should be. It’s also the last day for Democrats living abroad to participate in the primary.

Here are five things to watch on Super Tuesday II.

Tuesday's primary states brace for strong turnout, hope to avoid long lines

The six states voting in the primaries and caucuses Tuesday are bracing for a strong turnout after some voters in California and Texas waited hours in long lines to cast their ballots.

Election officials and experts are hoping that with less new technology, more paper-based methods and early and absentee voting options, the states — Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Washington, and North Dakota — have fewer bottlenecks. But other changes may delay reporting of the results.

“We do not anticipate unusually long lines in the March 10 states, primarily due to variables such as voting methods, state sizes and the absence of major process changes such as the introduction of Vote Centers,” Eddie Perez, an election administration analyst with the technology group OSET Institute, said in an email.

Click here for the full story.

Sanders and Biden scrap on the airwaves in Tuesday's states

Melissa Holzberg

Ben Kamisar and Melissa Holzberg

WASHINGTON — It may not be super, but as the Democratic race hits the latest round of contests today, Joe Biden is looking to replicate his strong showing on last week's Super Tuesday and widen his delegate lead over Bernie Sanders. 

The Sanders campaign is outspending Biden on the TV and radio airwaves across the six states that hold their nominating contests today — $2.9 million to Biden's almost $2.2 million, according to Advertising Analytics. But Biden's effort has been boosted by spending from his allied super PAC, Unite the Country. 

Both campaigns are spending the most in Michigan — Sanders and Biden have spent about $1.2 million each, with Unite the Country spending another almost $400,000.  

The Biden campaign and his super PAC have also run ads in Missouri and Mississippi, but neither have spent a cent on TV or radio ads in Washington, Idaho and North Dakota.

The Sanders campaign, by comparison, has gone up on the airwaves in all six states voting Tuesday. 

Sanders' top ad across these states, according to Advertising Analytics data, is one that attacks Biden on social security by using audio from a speech in 1995 where he called for a spending freeze across the government. His campaign has spent more than $644,000 to air the ad in states holding votes on Tuesday. 

The Biden campaign has bristled at those attacks, and has spent almost $200,000 in those states on ads that criticize Sanders for going negative and argue Biden has said he'd expand Medicare and Social Security. 

Biden's top ads in the states voting Tuesday are different versions of the same spot, which feature former President Obama's praise of Biden as "an extraordinary man with an extraordinary career in public service." 

And Unite Our Country has spent $376,000 in these states on a spot that quotes Biden talking about his campaign, and includes some brief swipes at Sanders (Biden is quoted int he ad saying he wants to "build on ObamaCare" instead of scrapping it, and "Democrats want a nominee who is a Democrat"). 

FIRST READ: Sanders defied the odds in Michigan once before. A replay might be much harder.

+2

Mark Murray

Carrie Dann

Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann

Four years ago, Bernie Sanders shocked the political world and defied the public polling by winning the Michigan primary — even though he was unable to change the overall delegate math.

But here are three reasons why Sanders winning Michigan tonight on this Above-Average Tuesday would be an even bigger surprise than it was in 2016.

Bill de Blasio wants Warren to endorse Sanders

NBC News

 

Kansas City's mayor says he got turned away from his polling place

Missouri has experienced minor technical issues as its primary election is underway.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas tweeted a video that he had been turned away at the polls this morning. "I wasn’t in the system even though I’ve voted there for 11 years, including for myself four times!" he wrote.

But that was the result of a simple user error, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft told NBC News.

"He's in the system. He's registered. He has been registered. The poll worker misspelled his name," Ashcroft said.

Missouri does not require voters to present identification when voting, but Ashcroft said he recommended voters present them to avoid misspellings.

Other voters reported glitches that prevented them from voting normally.

Adam Rygiol, 34, said that even though registration tablets at his polling location in Jackson County, MO, recognized he was eligible to vote, he and another man couldn't complete their ballot normally, and had to sign provisional ballots.

"My understanding is that some of those tablets were not communicating with each other between 6:00 and 6:30" in Jackson and St. Louis Counties, Ashcroft said, but that affected voters could vote provisionally, and that the problem had since been resolved.

What the polls show for Biden and Sanders in Michigan and elsewhere

Democratic voters in six states will make their choices for president known Tuesday, when more than 350 delegates are at stake.

Joe Biden has been rising in the polls since his Super Tuesday surge — when he won 10 states, building on a decisive victory in South Carolina — but Bernie Sanders will compete in several states that handed him victories in 2016.

Here's what the latest polls show could happen.

Everything you need to know about Tuesday's primaries

There are primaries in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and Washington and caucuses in North Dakota on Tuesday, and the results in most of the states should be known within hours of the polls closing — 8 p.m. ET for the earliest states and 11 p.m. ET for the latest. 

Here's everything else you need to know.