Hennepin County Was Super Tuesday's Big Surprise: Here's Why

MINNEAPOLIS — Former Vice President Joe Biden's surprising victory in Minnesota — and in several other states on Super Tuesday — can be told through what happened at the polls in Hennepin County. Minnesota's biggest county was expected to break for Sen. Bernie Sanders, especially after Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropped out a day earlier.

Sanders rallied with supporters in the Twin Cities hours before Super Tuesday voting kicked off, and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minneapolis made a passionate case for Sanders at the event.

However, when the dust on Election Day had settled, it was clear that Klobuchar's endorsement of Biden on Monday night had a much bigger impact.

According to a Star Tribune poll published late last month, Sanders had been in second place in Hennepin and Ramsey counties, just behind Klobuchar. Biden was a distant fourth, trailing even behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

All that changed when voters hit the polls Tuesday. Not only did Biden compete in Hennepin County, he beat Sanders there, winning the state's most liberal cities and suburbs.

Sanders' failure to overcome Biden in the west metro spelled doom for his entire night, both in Minnesota and in other states across the nation. It was clear that moderate support had consolidated behind Biden within hours of Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg dropping out.

"Part of Sanders’ path in the state was running up a massive margin in Minneapolis, but it seems to have been wiped out by the suburbs," noted National Journal editor Alex Clearfield while the returns were coming in.

In the end, Biden beat Sanders in Hennepin County by 3,547 votes, just under two percentage points. Statewide, Biden's margin of victory over Sanders was 64,882 votes, or nearly 10 percentage points.

The Minnesota result was "probably the most dispiriting of the night" for Sanders supporters, said David Siders of Politico.

The former vice president's win in both progressive and conservative counties across the Land of 10,000 Lakes showed that his campaign is gaining steam when it was thought to be nearly finished less than a week ago.