Texas too close to call as Biden sees Super Tuesday surge – live | US news

Joe Biden declared victory in Texas, even though the AP has not yet called the state.

The former vice president celebrated the Texas results in a tweet that parodied the logo of the popular burger chain Whataburger, where Biden stopped with former rival-turned-endorser Beto O’Rourke last night:

With about 77% of Texas precincts reporting, Biden currently leads Bernie Sanders by about 3 points and 60,000 votes.

Looking ahead to the next contests: six states will hold primaries next Tuesday, March 10.

Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington will head to the polls and collextively award 352 pledged delegates.

It could be a good night for Bernie Sanders, considering he won Idaho, Michigan, North Dakota and Washington in 2016.

But a new poll showed Sanders falling nearly 7 points behind Joe Biden in Michigan, the most delegate-rich state holding a primary next week.

Bernie Sanders is also losing a key argument for his candidacy tonight: that he can increase turnout more than any of his competitors.

The state of Virginia, where Joe Biden won decisively, offered a harsh reality check on Sanders’ talking point tonight.

Virginia has been viewed as a crucial swing state in recent years, but it has become increasngly Democratic as the state’s DC suburbs lean more to the left.

Tonight, the turnout in Virginia was nearly double that of the 2016 Democratic primary between Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

The result of that increased turnout? Sanders lost to Biden by about 30 points.

Joe Biden’s team pointed to his victories tonight as evidence of his popularity among Democratic voters.

When asked how the former vice-president had managed to win in states he had paid almost no attention to, like Tennessee, deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield told CNN, “It is the power of Joe Biden. It is the fact that people know him.”

On the flip side, Biden’s success tonight raises questions about the effectiveness of Mike Bloomberg’s massive advertising spending and Elizabeth Warren’s vast field organization:

The blog has already covered how Joe Biden’s senior aide, Symone Sanders, won Twitter praise for jumping up to confront an anti-dairy protester who ran onto the stage tonight as the former vice president addressed supporters in Los Angeles.

But it should be noted that former second lady Jill Biden also confronted one of the protesters who rushed the stage, as the below photo vividly demonstrates.

The incident may have sparked some viral tweets, but it also raised concerns about whether top presidential candidates, like Biden and Bernie Sanders, need Secret Service protection.

Some voters in Texas have been waiting for five hours to cast their ballots, as the state’s primary remains too close to call.

Long lines at polling places are often celebrated as a sign of voter enthusiasm, but a number of Democratic strategists pointed out they are also a clear sign of voter suppression.

From a former National Security Council spokesman for Barack Obama:

Former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, who has endorsed Bernie Sanders, described tonight’s results as a “coup” in a now-deleted tweet.

Some of Sanders’ allies have complained about moderate Democrats’ efforts to consolidate their support around Joe Biden in recent days.

Speaking to supporters in Vermont earlier tonight, Sanders pledged to take on the “political establishment” as the party’s nominee, but there’s no question that Biden’s wins tonight have dealt a serious blow to Sanders’ presidential ambitions.

The Guardian’s Maanvi Singh reports from San Francisco:

The mood has been a bit confused here in San Francisco. At Manny’s – a local bar and gathering place – many patrons cheered as soon as it became clear that Bernie Sanders would win the state.

But some Sanders supporters felt uneasy. “I’m a little bit disappointed and nervous,” said Delia Cleveland, 40. “I’d hoped he’d have a bigger lead.”

Kyle Schmidt, 30, said he was feeling “all the emotions”.

“I feel better about progressive politics than I’ve ever felt in my life,” he said. “We might actually win.”

But Joe Biden’s wins didn’t feel good, he said. “It’s terrifying. I’d feel safe had Bernie dominated.”

Joe Biden has taken a narrow lead in Texas, where 228 pledged delegates are up for grabs.

With 63% of precincts reporting, Biden is at 30%, leading Bernie Sanders by 1 point and about 18,000 votes.

Those numbers indicate the final result in Texas could be quite close, so Biden may not get much of a delegate advantage over Sanders from the state.

On the other hand, California, the most delegate-rich state of the night, was immediately called for Sanders once polls closed, so he could have a significant delegate edge over Biden there.

Here’s some non-presidential primary news: Jeff Sessions, Trump’s former attorney general, has advanced to a runoff for his old Senate seat in Alabama.

Sessions and Tommy Tuberville, the former football coach at Auburn University, will face off on March 31 to determine Republicans’ Senate nominee after both candidates failed to hit 50% in tonight’s primary.

Sessions represented Alabama in the Senate for 20 years, but he left his seat in 2017, when Trump nominated him to be attorney general.

However, Trump soured on Sessions after he recused himself from the Russia investigation, clearing the way for the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller.

Sessions is now fighting to get his old job back, but he will need to defeat Tuberville — not to mention incumbent Democratic senator Doug Jones — to do so.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar appeared to criticize Elizabeth Warren for not dropping out of the race as Joe Biden notched several victories in Super Tuesday states:

Omar, one of the four progressive congresswomen known as “the Squad”, is a top surrogate for Bernie Sanders, and Warren will likely face increasing calls from his supporters to suspend her campaign after tonight.

Protesters rushed the stage at Joe Biden’s event in Los Angeles, raising concerns about security for the leading presidential candidates.

Two anti-dairy protesters, who have disrupted other candidates’ events in recent days, ran on to the stage and had to be dragged off by some of Biden’s staffers.

Symone Sanders, one of Biden’s top aides, actually jumped from her seat to grab the second protester and pull her offstage.

Sanders won praise on social media for her courage, and she joked about the incident over Twitter:

But the incident raised questions about whether the top candidates like Biden and Bernie Sanders should start receiving Secret Service protection:

Here’s how the AP was able to call the California primary so quickly for Bernie Sanders:

News outlets conduct exit polls of voters to get a sense of which way a race is leaning.

If those exit polls point to a decisive victory, the outlet may declare a winner right when the polls close. That’s what happened in South Carolina on Saturday, and we’ve seen it again tonight in states like Virginia and Vermont.

The fact that the AP, the outlet of record for elections, was able to call California so quickly for Sanders indicates the Vermont senator will likely have a significant margin of victory in the delegate-rich state.