Joe Biden ended a triumphant Super Tuesday with a narrow victory over Bernie Sanders in Texas, the giant red state where Democrats are seeking a rare return to power in 2020.
With 94% of precincts reporting, Biden held 34% of the vote to Sen. Bernie Sanders' 30% early Wednesday morning.
The former vice president's victory over the Vermont senator capped a resounding and resurgent string of victories across the South for Biden, who won at least nine states but none bigger or more symbolic than Texas. Just 24 hours earlier in Dallas, Biden mounted a display of force by the Democratic Party's moderate wing -- revealing endorsements by former rivals Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O'Rourke.
Michael Bloomberg, who according to the AP will reassess his campaign Wednesday after disappointing Super Tuesday results, had 15% of the vote in Texas and would earn a prorated number of delegates along with Biden and Sanders.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who lost her home state of Massachusetts Tuesday, was coming up fourth with 12% of the vote and would not earn any delegates in Texas.
Texas GOP voters overwhelmingly threw their support behind incumbent President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn -- both easily securing wins.
In Texas, Democrats will award 228 delegates to candidates -- 149 are based on the state's 31 Senate districts while the other 79 come from the statewide vote. Candidates must reach 15% in both a district and statewide to be eligible to receive a proportion of the delegates from each group.
The primary put Texas' fast-changing politics to the test and delivered some surprises. For Republicans, that included a rare loss for the Bush brand in the Lone Star State after Pierce Bush, a grandson of former President George H.W. Bush, failed to even make a runoff in a bid for Congress.
But for Texas Democrats, it meant seeing how far left voters would go before November.
"Things are looking awful good," Biden told supporters in Los Angeles before the race in Texas was called in his favor. "For those who have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign."
The last-minute gambit may have helped overtake Sanders, who had built a firm foothold in Texas just four years after badly losing the state to Hillary Clinton. Sanders was banking on young and Latino voters in booming Texas to accelerate his path to the nomination.
- Click here to see the full list of races and results.
- National returns on other Super Tuesday races can be found here.
Texas Has More on the Line Than the White House
President Donald Trump gave an endorsement in hopes of rescuing one of the GOP's few women in Congress, Rep. Kay Granger, who, despite feeling the heat from a conservative firebrand, declared victory Tuesday night in Fort Worth.
In Texas' Senate race, Democrat MJ Hegar awaited an opponent after advancing to a May runoff. Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, who was endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive New York firebrand, was fighting to make the cut.
In the latest poll by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler, combat veteran MJ Hegar was named by 15% of respondents, to lead all candidates. Texas Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas), who has served in the Senate 1993 and was named by 7% of those polled, who identified as Democrat or Independent leaning Democrat.
The winner of the Democratic Senate runoff will try to unseat Republican incumbent John Cornyn, who is seen as a heavy favorite in a state where a Democrat hasn't won a Senate seat since the 1970s. The Senate race hasn't mustered the same energy or attention as O'Rourke's barnstorming run in 2018 against GOP Sen. Ted Cruz that became a launchpad the former congressman's short-lived White House run.
"As a combat veteran, I am concerned about the values of this country that are under attack," Hegar told supporters in Austin. "And as a working mom, I'm concerned about the future if we keep it in the hands of people like Sen. John Cornyn."
Democrats are making fast gains in the nation's biggest GOP stronghold and have a shot in November at taking control of the Texas House for the first time in 20 years. Reclaiming such power would swiftly change the landscape of one of the GOP's most crucial states.
It's an outcome that some conservative voters had on their minds as they went to the polls in Texas. Shelby Schnefke, a stay-at-home mother of two, said after casting her ballot in Dallas that the GOP needs to stay on guard against Democrats making further inroads.
"I feel like recently it's been proven that it could happen," Schnefke said. "I think that's why it's more motivating now than ever for Republicans to come out and vote because I think a lot of times in Texas you're like, `Oh, we're safe.' But we definitely aren't safe."'
With the hotly contested presidential race topping the ballot, long lines at polling sites encouraged Democrats who are counting on record-shattering turnout across the state this fall.
Coronavirus fears resulted in a number of poll workers and elections judges not showing up for work in Austin, where there have been no confirmed cases. And in San Antonio, technical stumbles caused delays at some polling sites and reporting results in key races Wednesday.
