Joe Biden is looking to continue to ride a surge of momentum and build on his delegate lead as Sen. Bernie Sanders aims to pull off an upset in Michigan on Tuesday and reignite his 2020 presidential campaign.
The former vice president is coming off a stunning Super Tuesday performance in which he swept 10 of 14 states — including pulling off longshot wins in Massachusetts and Texas — to move past Sanders in the delegate count, 664 to 573.
Six states go to the polls Tuesday, but Michigan with its 125 delegates is the big prize of the night.
Biden, whose campaign was buoyed last week after receiving endorsements on the eve of Super Tuesday from former Democratic rivals Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, picked up two new endorsements Monday from Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker.
At a campaign stop Monday in Michigan, Biden ran through the names of the six former Democratic presidential hopefuls who have thrown their support behind him.
“They’ve all come out and endorsed at one time … the candidate that they think can win,” he told the crowd.
And surveys show Biden has a double-digit lead over Sanders in Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi while narrowly ahead in Washington.
There is no polling data for Idaho or North Dakota.
But Democratic socialist Sanders is hoping to recreate 2016, when he edged out Hillary Clinton in Michigan, giving new life to his White House campaign.
After spending several days campaigning in Michigan, Sanders held a rally in St. Louis and took aim at how Biden supported the Wall Street bailouts in 2008 and voted for the Iraq war in 2002.
“In a general election, which candidate can generate the enthusiasm and the excitement and the voter turnout we need?” Sanders asked the gathering. “If you want to defeat Trump, which all Democrats do and the majority of independents do and some Republicans do, we are that campaign.”
After Tuesday’s contests, in which 365 delegates are at stake, the next couple of weeks look bleak for Sanders.
Biden, who is enjoying strong support among black voters, is handily leading Sanders in Florida, which votes on March 17, and Georgia, which goes to the polls on March 24.
A candidate needs to amass 1,991 delegates to get the nomination this summer at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.
With Post wires



