Article Originally Published 3/4/20 at The Daily Texan
Former Vice President Joe Biden won the Texas Democratic presidential primary election with 33.4% of the votes and 94% of the precincts reporting at the time of print, according to The New York Times.
Biden was followed closely by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who won 29.4% of the vote with 90% of the precincts reporting at the time of print. In Travis County, Bernie Sanders had 37.5% of the vote with 94% reporting; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Biden coming in second and third.
“Call it a W. Thank you, Texas,” Biden tweeted Wednesday.
Biden won in Dallas County with 37.4% of the vote, Tarrant County with 34% and Harris County with 35.9%, according to The New York Times.
Josh Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project, said the race for president has so far been fluid and unclear.
“We’ll see if this actually becomes a two-candidate race,” Blank said. “What you’re seeing is the Democratic electorate mobilizing behind defeating (President) Donald Trump.”
Blank said Biden is performing better with African American voters, while Sanders is stronger with Hispanic voters.
“Texas is a more unique Super Tuesday state because it is demographically diverse, which will largely impact the votes,” Blank said.
University Democrats president Alex Meed said he thinks Biden’s lead was due to the changes happening throughout the race. He said major changes include former candidates Pete Buttigieg (Mayor, South Bend), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) dropping out and endorsing Biden in Dallas Monday.
“The moderate wing is definitely coalescing in terms of everyone going into Biden — even (Democratic candidate Michael) Bloomberg right now is considering the viability of that campaign,” Meed, a public affairs graduate student, said. “I don’t blame people who are upset that feel like their votes were wasted. We have a complicated system for how we elect the president. It means there will be problems.”
“I will be casting my ballot for Joe Biden,” O’Rourke said at the rally, according to the Dallas Morning News. “We need somebody who can beat Donald Trump … and in Joe Biden, we have that man.”
Ben Speigner, the chair of the progressive caucus for University Democrats, said he supported Sanders because of his political stances. He said Biden’s advantage is his consolidated voter base.
“I would say the moderates did a better job of coalescing around one person than we did, but there’s a lot of race left, a lot of time between now and the primary convention,” Speigner said.
Biden also carried Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia at the time of reporting. Sanders carried California, Colorado, Utah and Vermont at the time of reporting, according to The New York Times.
“This campaign will send Donald Trump packing,” Biden said at a rally in California on Tuesday.
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Cover Photo Credit: Amna Ijaz, Daily Texan Staff
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