Joe Biden crushed Bernie Sanders in Florida, adding to a series of decisive wins that leaves the Vermont senator with no realistic path to securing the Democratic presidential nomination.
Several outlets called the state for the former vice president as soon as final polls closed. At 8 p.m. EST, with 62% of precincts reporting, Biden had 60.9% of the vote, while Sanders had 22.6%.
Despite the state accounting for 219 nominating delegates to the Democratic National Convention, neither candidate visited the state in person in the days before the primary due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead, Biden had “virtual town halls” via video conference and Sanders held a digital “fireside chat.” Normal campaign operations were also interrupted, with staff members working from home rather than going door-to-door to encourage voters to go to the polls.
The Vermont senator, though, had little chance in the state, even before the pandemic swept the country. Primary polls showed Biden consistently leading Sanders by 30 to 40 points.
Sanders’s February comment about Fidel Castro’s repressive regime in Cuba likely also hurt his chances of gaining any ground in the state.
“It’s unfair to simply say, ‘Everything is bad.’ You know, when Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program,” Sanders said in a 60 Minutes interview.
Two freshman Florida House Democrats, Donna Shalala and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, condemned Sanders’s comment. The state has an estimated 1.5 million Cuban Americans.
The win will increase Biden’s delegate lead on Sanders. Before the Tuesday nominating contests, Biden had a lead of about 153 delegates. Delegates are allocated proportionally based on the vote in congressional districts and statewide, meaning that winning by a large margin translates to a greater delegate advantage.
A total of 1,991 delegates is needed to win the Democratic nomination at the party’s national convention this summer.
Despite complications from the coronavirus, MSNBC’s early data suggested that voter turnout in the state’s Democratic primary could far exceed that of 2016 — around 2.25 million compared to 1.7 million in 2016.
