While the Iowa caucus, the first leg of the Democratic nomination contest for the presidential election of November 3, was held on February 3, "Le Monde" launches its campaign logbook. A daily update, five days a week until September, with campaign facts, political advertisements, polls, maps and figures that allow you to follow and experience the most important electoral competition in the world.
Bernie Sanders lost his bet. He had concentrated all his forces in Michigan on the eve of Big Tuesday, Tuesday March 10, during which six new states were speaking in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. It was there that he relaunched his candidacy in 2016 against the favorite Hillary Clinton, after a disappointing Super Tuesday. But the Vermont senator, left behind in the voting intentions, failed to surprise.
On the contrary, the useful vote played to the full for his rival, Joe Biden, who outdistanced him by almost fifteen points. The latter also crushed Bernie Sanders in Mississippi while also taking him widely in Missouri. The former vice president therefore managed to replicate the victorious coalition that began to emerge since his unlikely South Carolina comeback on February 29, when his campaign appeared moribund.
This coalition is based on an undivided support of the African-American community, extended to the inhabitants of peri-urban areas whose tilting for the benefit of the Democrats explained their successes in the mid-term elections, in November 2018. Tuesday evening, the winner of the day reached out to his rival. " I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and passion. We have the same goal and together we will beat Donald Trump, we will bring this country together ", He assured while noting that the race was not over.
Bernie Sanders was banking on March 10 votes to narrow the delegate gap with his opponent. However, the gap widened and the senator was hooked in Washington State and North Dakota, and lost in Idaho.
After Big Tuesday, the nomination contest promises to be even more difficult for the senator. His nuanced positions on the regime of former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro were very badly received in Florida (219 delegates), who will vote on March 17 and who has a large Cuban diaspora, including among the Democratic ranks. He is currently left behind in Illinois (155 delegates), and Arizona (78 delegates) called to vote on the same day as Florida. The African-American vote should continue to favor Joe Biden in Georgia (105 delegates) on March 24, as in Louisiana on April 4.
