Sanders Unlikely To Regain Lead In Democratic Primary Race After Biden Comeback - Analysts

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2020) Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders is unlikely to rebound from his Super Tuesday losses because the party establishment and big donors are uniting behind Joe Biden, analysts told Sputnik.

Biden far exceeded expectations by winning 10 of the fourteen states that held Democratic Primary contests on Tuesday night. The former vice president wiped out the small lead the Vermont senator had going into Super Tuesday, and is now on top by a 566-501 delegate count, according to AP estimates. A candidate needs 1,991 delegates to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Biden also benefited from endorsements on the eve of Super Tuesday from former candidates Senator Amy Klobuchar and Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Moreover, on Wednesday, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also pulled out and endorsed Biden, which means the former vice president may pick up even more moderate votes throughout the rest of the campaign.

California State University Emeritus Professor of politics Beau Grosscup said Biden's dramatic campaign comeback is largely due to this consolidation encouraged by the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

"The DNC counterattack against Sanders is in full swing due to the coordinated dropouts by three DNC-backed candidates before Super Tuesday... and [Congressman] Jim Clyburn's endorsement of Biden, enabling Biden to sweep the South and win Texas and Minnesota," Grosscup told Sputnik.

Former President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also worked hard behind the scenes to swing support strongly behind Biden, Grosscup added.

"Add the Bloomberg dropout on Wednesday and the way is clear for the DNC to use its organizational resources and to lock up reluctant big donors to fund the Biden campaign from here on in," the professor said.

If none of the candidates can secure 1,991 pledged delegates, a majority of the total, then the nomination is decided by 775 so-called superdelegates during what is called a "brokered" convention. Superdelegates, or unpledged delegates, are not bound by the results of the primary elections and are free to support any candidate they want.

Grosscup pointed out that although Sanders still retained strength in the remaining states the DNC now had only one candidate to back and therefore would find it much easier to avoid a brokered convention in Milwaukee in July.

"If necessary they still have the 'process' of superdelegates to outvote Sanders if he can't get a majority of delegates going into the convention which is even more likely with the Biden surge," Grosscup said.

University of Pittsburgh Professor of Politics Michael Brenner agreed that the odds against Sanders had become overwhelming.

"Sanders is running against three Establishments: the Republican economic complex, the Democratic Party elite interested only in retaining their own positions of power and the complacent, self-indulgent liberal elites who strike an attitude but are quite content to leave things pretty much unchanged," Brenner concluded.