Biden Edges Sanders In Texas Democratic Primary

AUSTIN, TX — Joe Biden edged out Bernie Sanders in the Texas Democratic presidential primary by a slim margin on Tuesday. With a rich number of delegates — the greatest abundance of any state on Super Tuesday except California — Texas is a big prize in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination. At stake in the Lone Star State were 228 delegates for Democrats.

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren also vied for delegates' endorsements from Texas.

Biden had a strong showing in the primary elections, winning eight states other than Texas while Sanders won in his home state of Vermont along with victories in Colorado, Utah and the big prize of the night: California. With 99 percent of counties — 253 of the state's 254 counties — reporting as of Wednesday morning, Biden secured 32.91 percent of the Texas vote while Sanders got 29.98 percent. Bloomberg and Warren trailed with 15.06 percent and 11.63 percent, respectively.

The unofficial represent tallies from 99 percent of polling places, 5,185 of 5,212 sites. Returns were slow to be tallied, even by the standards of Texas where posted results often lag behind other states. This time around, a couple of issues combined to slow down the count. Several polling places opened 30 minutes late after some workers reportedly failed to show up amid fears of the novel coronavirus outbreak. And voter turnout destined for the record books given the high interest in the Biden-Sanders match-up helped exacerbate delays further.

Scores of polling sites were reporting hour-long waits at voter lines well after polls closed at 7 p.m. At the University of Texas at Austin, the line to vote wrapped around the building two to three times as young people waited to cast their ballots well after the polling site's closing time.

Patch will continually update the returns as they come in on Super Tuesday. Refresh this page to see the latest updates.

Five other Republicans mounted challenges in securing the GOP's nomination nod if only as a symbolic tactic of democracy in action, including a run by perennial candidate Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente Guerra, an eccentric businessman who was the Reform Party candidate in 2016. As expected, Trump got the most votes with some 1.7 million ballots cast for him.

The showing dwarfed Guerra's 6,777 votes and the 13,411 cast by the Texas electorate for Bill Weld, the former Massachusetts governor (1991-97) who ran for the U.S. Senate before losing to John Kerry. Some might also remember Weld as the Libertarian Party running mate of presidential hopeful and New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson in 2016.

Trump's primary election victory was a foregone conclusion given his incumbent status. It was on the Democratic side where the real spirited contest was seen between Biden and Sanders, who ran for president in 2016 before losing the nomination to Hillary Clinton. Prior to their Texas two-step, Sanders was triumphant in the February Nevada caucus after strong performances in Iowa and New Hampshire before his momentum was significantly slowed following Biden's big victory last Saturday in South Carolina where he won by nearly 30 points.

Super Tuesday Latest Results From Around The Country

Texas figures prominently in the bid to secure the Democratic nomination, some pundits labeling its influence as an outsize role in determining the eventual presidential nominee. Even though the Lone Star State has the second-biggest number of delegates after California, the Golden State is seen largely favorable for Sanders, yielding a dramatic Texas showdown between the top two contenders.

Its importance in the political calculus was illustrated on Monday, when Biden chose Dallas to secure in one fell swoop the endorsements of his former primary election rivals: former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Kloubacher and former El Paso, Texas, Congressman Beto O’Rourke.

Sanders, 78, also grasped the importance of the Lone Star State as key battleground state evidenced by his FEb. 23 appearance at Vic Matthias Auditorium Shores where he staged a political rally in a Texas visit that also included stops in El Paso and San Antonio.

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Billionaire Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, didn't materialize as significant spoiler in some pundits' predictions that he might siphon off delegate votes for Biden and Sanders — now the two most viable candidates for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. The poor showing for Bloomberg, 78, came after reportedly spending half-a-billion dollars in political advertising — a figure exponentially greater than all the other candidates combined — that included some $30 million on direct mail in trying to reach Latino voters, according to media reports.