Super Tuesday was marked by former Vice President Joe Biden's series of wins in the South, while California, the biggest prize of the contest, went to Vermont Senator and self-described "democratic socialist" Bernie Sanders.
Biden's "Big Mo" Revived His Campaign
Explaining why all eyes have been on Super Tuesday's "live results", Chris Cooper, PhD at the Department of Political Science and Public Affairs at Western Carolina University, notes that it is "the first time we get a glimpse of what a wide swath of the country thinks".
"Super Tuesday includes large states, like California and Texas, swing states like North Carolina, and small states like Vermont", he says. "Super Tuesday certainly isn’t all that matters, but Wednesday we will certainly know a lot more about the shape and future of this race going forward".
According to David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University, the race has been "completely reset", with Biden getting the "Big Mo’" he so desperately needs.
"Joe Biden wins south of the Mason-Dixon Line, in America’s South, combined with a comeback win in Texas, gave the former vice president a resurrected political life", he notes. "As we move to the next stage, we will see one tough battle between Biden and Sanders".
Previously, Democratic moderates, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg of Indiana and Senator Amy Klobuchar, dropped out, giving Biden a vital boost.
Biden's success in the Southern states did not catch Timothy Hagle, a political science professor at the University of Iowa, by surprise: what struck Hagle is the former vice president's wins in Minnesota and Massachusetts. "What seemed to help here were the endorsements of Klobuchar and Buttigieg", he suggests.
Musing on the reasons behind Biden's comeback, Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University, emphasises the support provided to the former vice president by African American voters. He adds that apart from this, well-educated white suburbanites also threw their weight behind Biden, apparently being concerned about the rise of a "candidate who proudly announces that he is a 'democratic socialist'".
Sean D. Foreman, a professor of political science at Florida-based Barry University, echoes the observers, saying that Biden definitely outperformed expectations. According to him, "this was the Democratic Party establishment fighting back against the Bernie Sanders movement with as much united strength as possible".
"The Texas win was the one that really calmed the nerves of party leaders who thought that Sanders was coming on strong in that state", Foreman suggests. "We have to remember that after South Carolina on Saturday this is the first time that Biden has actually had success in his presidential run".
Sanders 2016 vs Sanders 2020
Although Sanders boasted strong performances in New Hampshire and Nevada, according to The New Yorker, in 2016 the Vermont senator demonstrated better results by gaining 60% of the vote in New Hampshire, while this year his totals in the state "were less than half that".
Likewise, Bernie's vote percentages were lower in 2020 than they were in 2016 in most of the Super Tuesday contests, according to Foreman.
"The Sanders team should be disappointed", the professor says. "Sanders did not win as many states as expected and let Texas and Massachusetts slip away from his grasp. The margin in California looks like it will be closer than initially expected. Add all of this together and Sanders did not earn as many delegates as anticipated".
Nevertheless, Sanders still has a solid base of supporters and "an unwavering message", the academic highlights. Now it is clear that the forthcoming battle will be mostly between Sanders and Biden, "with a clear bias among the media and elite classes for Biden", he adds.
"Sanders remains strong among the youngest voters and his courtship of Latinos obviously paid off in California", noted Ross Baker. "But it is a real contest now".
"As we move to the next stage, we will see one tough battle between Biden and Sanders", echoes David McCuan.
It's Time for Bloomberg and Warren to Drop Out
Meanwhile, Super Tuesday became a real disappointment for Michael Bloomberg, who dropped out of the presidential race on Wednesday.
"Bloomberg did not perform as well as he hoped in many states but may have actually played a role in helping Biden and hurting Sanders because of the way the delegates are allocated", Foreman suggests.
Hagle agrees that despite some reasonable polling, Bloomberg "hasn't done very well", although the billionaire "managed a victory in the very small American Samoa".
"The main argument for his campaign was that he was the alternative to what seemed to be a failing Biden", he notes. "With Biden's success in so many Super Tuesday states it seems Biden could now be the frontrunner, which makes Bloomberg basically irrelevant".
Hagle, Foreman, and McCuan believe that Elizabeth Warren "is effectively out of the race as well". To make matters worse, her campaign is out of money, Foreman highlights, adding that the big question now is whether she would throw her support behind Sanders or Biden.
The academic foresees that yet another Democratic presidential hopeful, Tulsi Gabbard, who got just one delegate from her birthplace of American Samoa, is likely to continue her campaign, but won't affect the broader picture.
