Michigan saved Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid in 2016. On Tuesday, the state’s primary could end it.
After crushing losses on Super Tuesday, the Vermont democratic socialist’s White House bid is now counting on the Wolverine State to put him back in contention with its 125 delegates, after former Vice President Joe Biden swept the South and won the state of Texas last week.
Sanders defied the odds in Michigan in 2016 when he pulled off a stunning victory over Hillary Clinton — bucking polls that had him behind and winning by 18,000 votes.
But there are doubts Sanders can recreate that victory, with speculation rampant that Michigan this time could sound the death knell for his campaign.
A Detroit Free Press poll released on Monday gives Biden a massive 24-point lead against Sanders in the state, while a Quinnipiac University national poll shows Biden has a 19 percentage point lead.
Biden goes into the next round of races buoyed by the support of Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, who accompanied him at a rally in Detroit on Sunday night after endorsing him earlier in the week. Thus far every 2020 candidate who has dropped out and made an endorsement has thrown their support behind Biden. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who bowed out last week, has yet to endorse.
After trailing Sanders in the polls for months, Biden is in the midst of a stunning resurrection — collecting dozens of coveted endorsements — and could all but clinch the Democratic nomination if he wins an insurmountable number of delegates in Michigan this week and Florida next Tuesday.
Biden handily won 10 states in the March 3 contests — including Virginia, Massachusetts and Texas, which were expected to go to Sanders — putting him in the pole position with 664 delegates. Sanders has 573.
The states being contested on this Super Tuesday II, in addition to Michigan, are Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington. There are a total of 365 delegates up for grabs.
Biden has black voters to thank for bringing him back from the brink on Super Tuesday, and a key endorsement the weekend before from Rep. Jim Clyburn that put him over the top in South Carolina, when his campaign looked dead in the water.
Meanwhile, Sanders has all but conceded Mississippi, canceling his appearances there and instead spending the final days of the race in Michigan and Missouri, where he is appealing to his base of university students with campus rallies, flanked by his celebrity surrogate, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
