2020 primary
Local: Clash between Sanders and Biden reaches a peak. 8A
Nation: Biden makes stunning comeback in the South. 8A
By Emily Hayes
Journal Staff Writer
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., rose from South Carolina to win the swing state of Colorado by a considerable margin Tuesday night, finishing with 36% of the votes. The senator won in urban and rural districts of the state and gained almost 42% of the vote in Montezuma County, where 61% of voters cast ballots.
Sanders’ agenda includes more progressive policies like Medicare for All, which would eliminate private insurance and create a single government option. Plans like Medicare for All and College for All are policies Sanders has pushed since the 2016 presidential election.
Proposals Sanders supports, such the Green New Deal, a package of legislation that aims to address both climate change and economic inequality, have driven the Democratic party further left and attracted younger voters.
“It’s not about Bernie, it is about us, it is about the movement,” voter Maria Abando of South Carolina said at a rally for Sanders last week.
Results were expected to trickle in throughout the evening, but as of 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, the results showed former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg in second place with 23% of the vote and former Vice President Joe Biden in third place with 21%
Bloomberg opened offices in every congressional district in the state and poured an estimated $500 million into advertising across the country.
After a sweeping win in South Carolina, Biden was largely inactive leading up to the primary election, and was the only candidate to not hold a public event in Colorado.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., came in fourth with 17% of Colorado votes.
Sanders was projected to win in Colorado by 13 percentage points based on FiveThirtyEight polling before the primary, with Biden coming in second. The Vermont senator drew thousands of supporters last month at a rally in Denver.
“Tonight, I am telling you with absolute confidence we are going to win the Democratic nomination,” Sanders said in Vermont late Tuesday night after winning Colorado.
Sanders also won in Colorado’s 2016 caucuses and maintained a base of support in the state since then.
“We have come a long, long way,” Sanders said.
But as the field consolidated immediately before the Super Tuesday primary election, Colorado’s swing-state status became even more important for other candidates in their efforts to collect delegates.
While Sanders is the winner of the popular vote, the delegate count, once announced, will be important in determining the final Democratic nominee. Colorado will send 67 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. According to the Colorado Democratic Party, the delegates are assigned based on the primary vote in each congressional district. The 3rd Congressional District has five delegates going to the convention.
Votes for candidates who dropped out of the race will not count when it comes to assigning delegates.
Colorado has an open primary, which means the state’s many voters that identify as unaffiliated could vote in the Democratic primary. As of late December, 40% of voters in the state were unaffiliated.
There is also a U.S. Senate and House race ongoing in Colorado. Republican incumbent Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., is running for re-election, along with U.S. House Republican incumbent Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez.
The primary election for the U.S. House and Senate seats will take place June 30.
Emily Hayes is a graduate student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Journal.