Minnesota Shocks, Gives Joe Biden The Super Tuesday Win

Former Vice President Joe Biden chalked up an unexpected win on Super Tuesday, taking Minnesota just one day after receiving an endorsement from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

Biden is projected to take the state by double digits over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who was slated to win the state just a week ago after posting an incredible two-to-one victory over the former Veep in the Nevada caucuses. All that changed last Saturday after Biden won a commanding victory in South Carolina and “moderate” Democrats began the process of consolidating.

Former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped out Sunday and Klobuchar, who was the easily the favorite to take her home state, ended her campaign on Monday, endorsing Biden at a rally in Dallas, Texas.

It did the trick. Biden “won a surprising come-from-behind victory in the Minnesota Democratic presidential primary Tuesday night, edging out Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, long a champion of progressive activists in the state,” according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

“Biden had finished fourth in a Star Tribune/MPR poll on February 23, trailing Klobuchar, Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Sanders finished second in the same poll, closing in on Klobuchar,” the outlet reported late Tuesday, as results rolled in. “Sanders, who won the Minnesota caucuses four years ago, had been seen as a strong favorite to carry the state again, the more so after Klobuchar exited the race. Backed by state Attorney General Keith Ellison and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, Sanders maintained a strong grassroots organization in the state, and held a large rally in St. Paul on the eve of the election.”

Sanders also campaigned much harder in Minnesota than Biden, but Minnesota voters, the Star-Tribune says, made up their minds in just the last few days, electing to follow Klobuchar’s lead and cast a ballot for Joe Biden. Many of the state’s top Democrats, who had already endorsed Klobuchar, quickly shifted their endorsements to Biden, giving him a leg up on the eve of the all-important primary.

Biden won decisive victories in some of the state’s most progressive districts, besting Sanders in Minneapolis-St. Paul and the Twin Cities’ suburbs by an average of ten points. He also won among Democrats who listed “health care” as their top priority in the 2020 election, even though Sanders offered a much more comprehensive “Medicare for All” universal health care plan. Biden has campaigned on tweaking the Affordable Care Act — legislation that he largely regards as a success.

The argument that Biden was a better pick to take on President Donald Trump seemed to resonate even with progressives.

“I’m obviously more concerned about the bigger goal, which is getting Trump the hell out of office,” one former Sanders voter told the Star-Tribune. “In the last couple of days, though — I went back and forth a lot, because I do like Bernie the best. And it’s sort of felt like everyone has been pumping Biden up. I guess I listened to them.”

Notably, support for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) barely registerd in Minnesota, echoing a trend across the the country. Warren came in a distant fourth in the state. “Bloomberg, who has been pouring millions of dollars of his own money into his campaign, hired several dozen Minnesota staffers and opened a handful of offices statewide, and he campaigned in the state twice in recent months,” the Star-Trib said.