Joe Biden tops Bernie Sanders in Washington’s presidential primary
Joe Biden was declared the winner Monday of Washington’s Democratic presidential primary, topping Bernie Sanders 37.8% to 36.4%.
Results posted by the Washington Secretary of State Monday showed Biden ahead of Sanders, 574,200 votes to 551,543, with nearly all the votes counted.. Biden has won 43 convention delegates to Sanders’ 41, according to the Associated Press delegate tracker.
Sanders needed Washington last week, since earlier in the night he lost Michigan, where he had spent most of his time before the primary. And polls say he’s likely to lose Tuesday in Florida and possibly Illinois, Arizona and Ohio. Ohio may not hold its election Tuesday, though, as officials struggle with whether to proceed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Washington was supposed to be a safe place for Sanders. The Vermont senator and self-proclaimed democratic socialist who until two weeks ago had been considered the clear favorite. Sanders won three of four Washington Democratic convention delegates four years ago and had led in statewide polling earlier this year.
Biden, the former vice president, has been surging as he swept through primaries and caucuses throughout the country in the last 11 days.
Sanders made a strong effort in Washington. He drew thousands to his rally at the Tacoma Dome last month. His supporters went door to door Monday. He ran television ads. He announced a list of state co-chairs that included a member of Congress, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, Spokane City Councilmember Kate Burke and labor leaders.
“The guy’s popular in the state,” said State Rep. Steve Kirby, D-Lacey, who did not endorse anyone.
A statistic that irked the Sanders people from 2016 helped provide motivation this time. Sanders easily won the March 2016 Washington caucus and three-fourths of the convention delegates.
But when the state held its primary two months later, Clinton beat Sanders with 52%, weakening Sanders’ argument that he was most representative of Democratic sentiment in the state.
Sanders himself stayed away from Washington this time in the closing days. Instead, he poured much of his last-minute effort into Michigan, another state where he topped Clinton in 2016 and needed badly to win this time.
Sanders even hosted a roundtable last Monday with medical and health care professionals to talk strategies for combating the coronavirus in Detroit though Washington has been the epicenter of the crisis.
Biden also stayed away from Washington.
“I don’t think there really is a Biden effort,” said State Sen. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia.
Biden’s strategists saw the Clinton vote as a base waiting to be tapped.
“Get outside King County and Puget Sound and Democrats are not necessarily democratic socialists,” said Mark Stephan, associate professor of political science at Washington State University’s Vancouver campus.
Biden didn’t seem to need much help wooing that vote.
He rolled into Tuesday riding a wave of momentum after winning 10 of the 14 states that voted a week earlier and had opened up a commanding lead in convention delegates. He could now boast the backing of the center-left candidates on the Washington ballot who had left the race.
A KING-5 poll taken March 4 to 6 showed clear movement to Biden in the days before the primary.
Sanders had momentum prior to the Feb. 29 South Carolina primary, but the poll showed movement to Biden after he easily won South Carolina and began his surge. The Washington ballots were mailed out after Feb. 21.
The poll found that among those who had returned a ballot before being polled, Sanders was up by 7.
But among those who said they would return their ballots by Tuesday, Biden led by 9. Overall, Biden now led Sanders, 36% to 35%.
Biden benefited from the dropouts who endorsed him. Sanders was denied any such advantage, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, who left the race Thursday and had ties to Sanders’ liberal base, has not endorsed anyone.
Olympia voters told The Olympian their votes had changed as they watched preferred candidates suspend their campaigns.
Steve Albrecht, a physician in Olympia, is one of those voters. Albrecht was not comfortable sharing who ultimately got his vote, but did say which candidates got financial support from his wife and him.
“I’m open to saying that, between me and my wife, we made campaign contributions to Kamala Harris, to Elizabeth Warren, to Cory Booker, to Pete Buttigieg,” he said.
They were disappointed that none of those candidates were still in the race for Washington’s primary, but “we still think that any of the Democrats in the race are a better option than what we’ve got in D.C. today,” Albrecht said.
As a doctor, he also confirmed it was good timing for a vote-by-mail election, considering the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19, the illness caused by a novel coronavirus.
“I think our state should be applauded for having a process like this that gets an increased voter turnout and a safe voter turnout and a secure vote,” he said.
What motivated people over and over, though, was a desire to see President Donald Trump defeated.
Tacoma resident Edwin Nieves said the country cannot stand for four more years of a Trump presidency.
“I’m looking for someone who will tell the truth,” Nieves said. “Every time Trump says something, it’s a slap in the face. We can take care of people by telling the truth.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 8:10 PM.
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