By ROBERT YOON and MAYA SWEEDLER (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press was able to declare President Joe Biden the winner of a near clean sweep of Democratic Super Tuesday contents based largely on initial vote results that showed him winning about nine out of every 10 votes in almost every contest. The lone exception: American Samoa, where the local Democratic Party announced it had awarded half of its delegates to a little-known candidate.
Biden has now won 19 out of 20 contests and has more than quadrupled his total number of delegates. He is on track to win enough delegates to clinch the nomination by March 19.
Here’s how Super Tuesday played out:
IOWA: Called for Biden, 5:50 p.m. EST
Biden’s first win of the night was in Iowa’s first vote-by-mail Democratic presidential preference contest. The AP called the race for the president based on near-complete vote results provided by the Iowa Democratic Party showing him leading the field by more than a nine-to-one margin. Ballots postmarked by Tuesday will be accepted and counted until the vote is certified on March 16, but there will not be enough outstanding votes to sway the outcome. Iowa historically has kicked off the race for the White House for both parties, starting in 1972 for Democrats and 1976 for Republicans. But Iowa Democrats were ousted from their first-in-the-nation perch this in favor of South Carolina, which held the party’s first authorized 2024 presidential nominating contest on Feb. 3.
VIRGINIA: Called for Biden, 7:09 p.m. EST
Biden’s second Super Tuesday win was in Virginia, where the first vote results of the night showed Biden winning almost all of the vote. Although less than 1% of the vote had been tabulated in the commonwealth, Biden had received more than nine out of 10 votes cast. The initial results showed him winning almost all the vote in the Richmond area, one of the largest Democratic strongholds in the state. He led by such a wide margin in…
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