PBS NewsHour March 10th Primary Special Coverage

JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

And welcome to our "PBS NewsHour" Vote 2020 primary night special coverage.

It is just after 11:00 p.m. on the East Coast, and the polls are now closed in all six states voting today.

It is a night shaping up to give another big boost to Joe Biden.

In Michigan, the most contested state of the night, with 125 delegates at stake, Biden is the projected winner.

In Missouri, a key state in the general election, Biden also the projected winner.

In Mississippi, the only state in the South voting today, Biden again is projected to win.

In North Dakota, the results are still coming in.

And the polls have just closed in the states of Idaho and in Washington state.

We are watching those.

But, at this hour, Joe Biden has accumulated 783 delegates, compared to 628 for Bernie Sanders.

Earlier in the day, both Biden and Sanders canceled campaign rallies in Ohio due to concerns over the coronavirus.

Instead, Biden spoke tonight before cameras and a small crowd in Philadelphia.

JOSEPH BIDEN (D), Presidential Candidate: Victories Mississippi, Missouri, Michigan, and we're waiting to hear from North Dakota, Idaho and Washington state.

As I said from the beginning, this election is the one that has character on the ballot.

The character of the candidates, the character of the nation is on the ballot.

It's more than a comeback, in my view, our campaign.

It's a comeback for the soul of this nation.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Joe Biden's win in the state of Michigan means that he claims the crown jewel of this election night.

Both he and Sanders put considerable time and resources toward the Great Lakes State.

So, that's where we will begin tonight.

Christy McDonald has been following the Michigan primary.

She is a reporter and anchor for our partners at Detroit Public TV.

Hello to you, Christy.

So, tell us.

You have been talking to voters and the experts there.

What drove Joe Biden's vote?

CHRISTY MCDONALD, Detroit Public Television: You know, it's really interesting to go through the exit polling now, as we know that Joe Biden did take Michigan tonight.

And we're looking, and we're seeing that he was able to pick up more moderates this time around than Hillary Clinton did four years ago and more independents.

Also, he had a very strong showing with African-American voters as well.

And going forward, I think, when we start to look at the numbers in the next days or so, I'm really going to be focusing in on Macomb County.

And we talked to a lot of voters and spent some time there the last couple of weeks, and taking a -- just a really big, hard listen to what is on the minds there voters, a lot of working-class voters who are looking at jobs, they're looking at health care, and they're the voters that also gave President Trump that slim victory here four years ago.

A lot of voters went for Biden tonight.

So, we will have to start to unpack some of the numbers and see how that shakes out and what that's going to mean now for November 2020.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So interesting, because, as you say, those are voters you might expect to have voted for Bernie Sanders.

What else do you see, Christy McDonald, in terms of turnout?

We have been hearing the turnout is bigger than expected.

CHRISTY MCDONALD: Yes, that's what the numbers are starting to show us so far.

We actually had a change to our Michigan voting law this year, where there was no-reason absentee voting.

And, also, you could register to vote today, and then vote in the primary.

We're getting reports that, at 9:30 tonight, even after the race had been called, people were still waiting in line to vote after they had registered to vote today.

About 13,000 people, the secretary of state is estimating, did that, and took advantage of that today.

And taking a look at the absentee turnout, over 800,000 people voted by absentee.

And that's about double where they were in the primary in 2016.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Fascinating.

And again, just to stress, this is the state that Bernie Sanders won four years ago.

It was a narrow win, just by a point-and-a-half, but tonight in Joe Biden's column.

CHRISTY MCDONALD: Absolutely.

And it was a big upset four years ago when we looked back.

Bernie Sanders only won by just over a point for Hillary Clinton, and all the polls had been going her way.

But now we're seeing something very different here.

Michigan in 2020 is very different than it was in 2016.

And Democrats are starting to see a bit of a shift in terms of who can take Donald Trump on in November 2020.

That's what Democrats have been telling us over and over again as we have been covering this race.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Christy McDonald, joining us from Detroit, thank you very much.

And now we go to the state of Missouri, where Joe Biden is again the projected winner.

Jason Rosenbaum has been following this contest.

He's a political correspondent for St. Louis Public Radio.

So, again, erosion you're seeing in the support in the state of Missouri, as we are seeing in Michigan, support that Bernie Sanders enjoyed four years ago, Jason.

What -- how -- what's the evidence of that?

JASON ROSENBAUM, St. Louis Public Radio: It's not just an erosion of support.

It's a full collapse of support for Bernie Sanders.

I just looked at some of the numbers.

And, as of this point, Joe Biden may win every single county in Missouri, including places like Boone County, the home of the University of Missouri-Columbia, which Bernie Sanders won in 2016 by 22 percentage points.

Last time I checked, Joe Biden was winning by 4 percentage points.

So this -- the headline of tonight in Missouri is almost a historic victory for Joe Biden.

It cements him as the national front-runner.

And as I said earlier, this could be the night where we all say that Bernie Sanders' campaign for president 2020 came to an end.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Jason, as you're covering this campaign, you're talking to voters as more and more of the other candidates for president on the Democratic side were dropping out, what were voters telling you about what they were looking for?

JASON ROSENBAUM: What Democrats in Missouri want is somebody who can beat Donald Trump.

And what Missouri Democrats want is somebody who is going to help down-ballot candidates, like state Auditor Nicole Galloway, who's running for governor, as well as Jill Schupp, who's running against Congresswoman Ann Wagner in a competitive 2nd Congressional District race.

Missouri is not going to be a state that I think the Democrats are going to be able to win in November, but they need to do better than they did in 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost the state by almost 20 percentage points.

And many voters here believe that Biden can close that gap and bring the party here back to respectability, and perhaps back into power in the governor's office.

It's not a sure thing.

There's still a long way to go for this party that's lost so much ground since 2016.

But tonight may be a turning point, to some extent.

We will see what happens in November.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And finally, Jason, what do voters say is the difference, if you -- if you put in this context, the difference they see between Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden?

Why -- what is it about Joe Biden that is more appealing to these Democrats you're talking to?

JASON ROSENBAUM: I think one of the key things is, Biden has a big connection with African-American voters here.

Some of it could be that he's from Delaware, which has a sizable African-American population.

So, he has that experience of retail politics, but, also, he was Barack Obama's vice president.

And that association was very strong with people in St. Louis City and St. Louis County, where many African-Americans live.

So, I think that's a big takeaway from the overwhelming results tonight.

And if they can get large turnout -- and, by they, I mean Missouri Democrats -- from black voters in November, it'll help candidates like Galloway.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Jason Rosenbaum of St. Louis Public Radio, thank you very much.

JASON ROSENBAUM: Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And now to the state of Mississippi, as we said, the only Southern state holding a contest today.

The Southern states that voted last week on Super Tuesday broke for Biden over Sanders heavily.

And, tonight, the Associated Press has projected that Mississippi will follow suit.

Adam Ganucheau is following the primary there.

He's a political reporter for the nonprofit newsroom at Mississippi Today.

So, Adam, as you and I have spoken tonight, you have spoken about the importance of the African-American vote.

It makes up three-quarters of the Democratic primary vote in Mississippi.

What are those voters saying today about Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders?

ADAM GANUCHEAU, Mississippi Today: Sure.

Judy, it was clearly a referendum, I think, on sort of Joe Biden's candidacy, but also sort of the Democratic Party itself, and in the direction of the party.

Overwhelmingly, African-American voters in this state, according to the exit polls, came out and voted for Joe Biden; 83, 84 percent, as high as 84, 85 percent in some exit polls of black voters voted for Joe Biden.

So, yes, again, being the only Southern state with a primary today, being sort of later than a few others, I think this was -- this was certainly a solid win for Joe Biden, and sort of solidified his Southern dominance over Bernie Sanders.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what about younger African-American voters vs. older?

ADAM GANUCHEAU: Sure.

Younger African-American voters, according to the exit polls that we're seeing tonight, certainly, a higher percentage of the younger African-American voters did vote for Sanders over Biden.

But, again, total of African-Americans, according to the exits, around 84, 83, 85 percent supported Biden.

So, we're seeing that generational gap, for sure.

Mississippi, I think the party itself, the Democratic Party, is still more centrist or establishment, whatever you want to call it, than it is progressive.

But, certainly, as more young voters are becoming politically engaged, certainly in the last four years, I think that might be why we see an uptick in some support among young African-American voters for Sanders.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Adam, let me finally ask you about the white voters in the Democratic primary.

What did they say today?

ADAM GANUCHEAU: So, this is really fascinating.

According to several exit polls, depending on which ones you're looking at, anywhere between 29 percent and 33 percent of Democratic primary voters in Mississippi today were white.

That tracks four to five, up to -- if it's 33 percent of the electorate is white, that's up to eight or nine points higher than we have traditionally seen in a Mississippi Democratic primary.

That could, in theory, bode well for someone like Joe Biden.

I think, if he's able to win some suburban or college-educated white voters who may be more moderate or independent voters in a state like Mississippi, I think that could bode well for Joe Biden.

And we have a U.S. Senate race this year.

Mike Espy, an African-American Democrat, is running against Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Espy, I think, if he has a chance of winning in November, he's going to have to convince a lot of those suburban college-educated whites in Mississippi to come over to his side.

And we have seen that trend in the last two or three years here in the state in statewide elections.

But, again, looking at these numbers here tonight, seeing that pretty big uptick in percentage-wise of white voters in the Democratic primary, I think, if you're Mike Espy tonight, you're really enjoying seeing those numbers.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Fascinating how just a few percentage points can make a big difference.

Adam Ganucheau with -- thank you very much, with Mississippi Today.

We appreciate it.

ADAM GANUCHEAU: Thanks, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And now one last check-in, and that is in Washington state.

It has the second biggest pot of delegates up for grabs on this election night.

And the deadline for voters to mail in or to submit their ballots passed just a few minutes ago.

We're watching the results come in with Mark Baumgarten.

He has been keeping track of the primary there.

He is the managing editor for our partners at KCTS-9 Crosscut.

That is the PBS member station in Seattle.

So, let's talk about the fact that your state is a mail-in state.

And people had, Mark, until just now to get those ballots postmarked.

How is that affecting what's going on?

MARK BAUMGARTEN, KCTS-9 Crosscut: Well, I think the main thing you're going to see is a result tonight that's going to look different than the final result.

Ballots were received at a time where the race was very different, where there were many more candidates, and especially more moderate candidates.

So, the result that we will see tonight is going to have a lot more of those candidates who have dropped out gaining a considerable amount of the vote.

As the ballot drops come along in the next few days, I think that you will see Biden consolidating more of the vote, and probably his share of the vote will grow.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, as you look at the Democratic - - the makeup of the Democratic voters in the state of Washington, how does it break down?

What is your sense of how these voters approached -- thought about these candidates this year?

MARK BAUMGARTEN: Well, we have two measures that we can look at.

In 2016, we know that the primary, which drew more voters, that Hillary Clinton won that, whereas Sanders won the caucus.

And then the polling that we have seen, you actually see more of a total moderate vote than you do when you add up the progressives.

So, even though Washington state is deep blue - - we haven't voted for a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan -- you -- we still -- we still have a bit of a moderate streak.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I have to ask you, Mark.

Since Washington state has been hit so hard by the coronavirus in this country, is that having an effect on people's ability to pay attention to this primary?

What effect do you see it having?

MARK BAUMGARTEN: I don't think so.

What we're hearing from the secretary of state is that turnout is up.

And there are a lot of late ballots coming in.

I think people are paying attention.

And we do know that, as recently as a couple weeks ago, a quarter of the Democratic voters were undecided.

So there's -- they have been hungry for information.

They have been paying attention.

And it looks like they have been turning in their ballots the last couple days.

JUDY WOODRUFF: That is so interesting, because the rest of the -- the rest of the country has been looking at Washington state and hearing a lot about the efforts to cope with coronavirus.

So, the fact that people are still managing to pay attention to the primary, and turning out in larger-than-expected numbers does say something.

All right, Mark Baumgarten, we thank you very much.

We appreciate it.

MARK BAUMGARTEN: Thank you, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And now to look at what all of it means for the big 2020 picture, I'm here with Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and the host of public radio's "Politics With Amy Walter," along with our own Lisa Desjardins.

Hello to both of you.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Hello.

LISA DESJARDINS: Hello.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, it looks as if, Amy, we have a big night... AMY WALTER: That's right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... for Joe Biden.

It is true, a couple of these states, we don't have any numbers yet or very little coming in, in fact, three, if you count Idaho, North Dakota and Washington state, but for the big states we were looking at in terms of the number of delegates, Joe Biden's doing well.

What is going on?

AMY WALTER: He is doing really well.

Remember, Michigan and Missouri were two of the closest contests in the 2016 race, Hillary Clinton barely winning Missouri, Bernie Sanders, as you noted earlier, narrowly winning Michigan.

Joe Biden is winning these states by big percentages.

Missouri, right now, it's up to 60 percent of the vote that he has.

It's 54 percent in Michigan.

And thus far, he's picked up 113 delegates, to Bernie Sanders' 54 delegates.

So this is a big haul.

This is a big night.

There's nothing -- at least in the states that have come in thus far, nothing's been close.

Joe Biden is winning in almost every single demographic group, except for younger voters.

But he's winning among white voters.

He's winning suburban voters.

He's winning among the college-educated white voters, non-college-educated white voters, really every one of those pieces of the puzzle that you need to put together.

And so, if you're Joe Biden now, looking forward to the next states on the calendar, you can say, well, look, I have won pretty much every demo -- not every demographic group, but the big demographic groups I need to win to show the Democratic Party that I can win in all parts of the country, and, most specifically, that I can win over those voters that we are going to need to get, as Democrats -- this is what Joe Biden would say -- in order to win in November.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Lisa, you have been looking in more detail into some of these groups.

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.

Right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Help us understand exactly who Joe Biden's winning with.

LISA DESJARDINS: Well, I want to start, first of all, with the bright spot for Bernie Sanders that Amy was mentioning, and that's the young.

So, let's look at Michigan, for example, again, as Amy said, a state that Sanders won in 2016 over Hillary Clinton.

Voters aged 18 to 44, there we have it, Bernie Sanders winning 54 percent to 37 percent.

That's a very healthy 17-point margin.

And that's not just 20-year-olds.

It's all the way up to 44-year-olds that he is winning.

But look at Joe Biden here when you look at the next age group, 45 to 64, a larger margin, 60 percent to 30 percent for Bernie Sanders.

This is the core group for Joe Biden, when you talk about age.

He's doing well with that demographic.

Let's also talk about race.

I think Joe Biden would say and his supporters would say that black voters in South Carolina brought him here.

Now we see these margins expanding.

Look at that margin in Michigan for him already, 36 points over Bernie Sanders with black voters.

But also look at white voters in Michigan, a 20-point margin for him there.

That is twice the margin we saw with white voters in South Carolina.

So, here, he may be increasing his support with white voters.

We have heard from Mississippi that there was an increase in turnout among white voters there.

That could be important as we go along.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Amy, I want to come back to delegates for just a minute.

You mentioned what the delegate count is projected to be as of right now.

It doesn't -- when you look at those numbers, I mean, Bernie Sanders still has, what, over 600 delegates.

AMY WALTER: That's right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, I mean, he's not out of this.

AMY WALTER: That's right.

I mean, you look at these numbers, Biden right now 783 to Sanders' 628.

So, 155, that's not a huge number.

We were talking about such big margins today, winning with 60 percent and 54 percent.

Here's the thing about the Democratic primary.

And it's different than the Republican primary.

Every single state allocates its delegates proportionally.

And what that means is, even if you lose, you get some delegates.

Even if you win, though, you're not getting as many delegates as you might if it were a winner-take-all system.

So, if you look, for example, back when Michigan was really close in 2016, Bernie Sanders wins by a point-and-a-half.

He gets 67 delegates.

Great news.

But Hillary Clinton got 63.

So, even when you win, it's not necessarily - - it's -- unless you win by a big margin, you don't blow it out.

What this means is, in short, that it is very difficult to build a big lead in a Democratic primary because of the proportional voting system, but it's... JUDY WOODRUFF: This new -- these new rules.

AMY WALTER: These rules.

But it's also very hard to catch up once you're behind.

Even if you run the table, you have to win by huge margins in order to make up these delegates.

LISA DESJARDINS: Doing the quick math, bringing out my iPhone calculator, I mean, right now, looking at these margins, Bernie Sanders is looking at -- to make up this gap, he would have to win 60 percent or more of the future delegates.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Of the remaining contests.

LISA DESJARDINS: Of the remaining delegates.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Yes.

Yes.

LISA DESJARDINS: So, I mean, 60 percent is not 70 percent, but 60 percent, he's not within shot of that in the contests we're seeing tonight.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Which is why I want to ask you, because you are looking, I mean, on Twitter and other commentary tonight.

Some people are saying, oh, well, it's time for Bernie Sanders to get out.

And, in fact, Bernie Sanders went home tonight to his home state of Vermont.

I don't know what his options were.

His rally in Ohio was canceled because of the coronavirus worries, as was Joe Biden's rally.

But those calls, those comments are out there.

And people are looking at it and saying, but, wait a minute, it's not that Joe Biden has blown out -- he's not thousands of delegates ahead.

But your point is, it's just hard to do, as you move through these contests, to catch up.

LISA DESJARDINS: Bernie Sanders is going to have a very important weekend now, because he has a debate, where it will be just him and Joe Biden on stage.

There will not be an audience because of the coronavirus... JUDY WOODRUFF: Which will be strange, in and of itself.

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.

It will be a high-stakes, highly unusual debate for Bernie Sanders.

And we will see how he shows up there.

Does he keep attacking Joe Biden?

Does Joe Biden start pivoting to only talking about President Trump?

That is all going to be very significant.

For the Biden campaign, one thing I want to point out about Michigan tonight, if he is looking toward November, if they're starting to think about November, Michigan is a state that, whoever the Democratic nominee is, has to win.

They lost by just 10,000 votes to President Trump.

So, let's look at the urban and rural divide there in Michigan.

Here, we see it.

You see Joe Biden winning there.

So, look at urban voters.

Joe Biden is winning with urban voters 51 to 36.

Clinton also won with urban voters in Michigan.

But look at suburban voters.

This is the group that elected Donald Trump from Michigan.

This is a group that went for Donald Trump 57 percent of 33 percent.

That group of Democratic voters at least, which is a large group, 43 percent of all the voters, is firmly behind Joe Biden.

That is a group that Democrats absolutely need in Michigan in November.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Those are -- Amy, so those are voters who presumably did vote for Donald Trump.

AMY WALTER: We don't know exactly who they voted for.

But we do know, in a state like Michigan in 2018, Democrats flipped two suburban Michigan districts that had been in Republican hands for a long, long time.

In fact, they were drawn by Republican legislature -- legislators to be Republican districts.

It was -- the story of 2018 were the suburbs.

Joe Biden is proving that the suburbs once again are very, very important for Democrats.

As to -- I think Lisa made a really good point about the debate and what is it going to look like?

We saw a little bit of a pivot from Biden tonight in his speech, the odd -- just to his campaign staff and to an empty room, but to the TV cameras.

He was reaching out to Bernie Sanders' supporters, saying: We appreciate you.

We like you.

I think Bernie Sanders is a great guy.

In other words, I don't think that he sees much good coming out of trying to fight with Bernie Sanders for a debate this weekend.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But up until recently, very recently, Bernie Sanders has been on the campaign trail pointing out vividly... LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.

AMY WALTER: Absolutely.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... the differences in his position and Joe Biden, and going after Joe Biden for his vote on the Iraq War, for his vote on health care -- I mean, on Social Security... LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... and being open to cutting Social Security.

So, Bernie Sanders hasn't shown in the last couple of days an inclination to cut back or to hold back.

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

There were new attack ads like that, new critical ads, from the Sanders campaign this week about Joe Biden.

And we will see if there might be more.

I have a feeling they probably have more ready to go.

We will see if they put those on air.

And the -- when you ask voters in these voter surveys, based on your candidate, are you willing to support someone else who's the nominee, Sanders voters are the ones that are the least likely to say right off the top.

They will say they will think about someone else, but they're not automatically saying they will commit to any Democratic nominee.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, quickly here, Amy, as we begin to wrap up our coverage tonight, a good night for Joe Biden.

Next Tuesday -- there's the debate of the weekend -- next Tuesday, big states holding primaries, Ohio and others.

AMY WALTER: That's right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What do we look for there?

AMY WALTER: Well, I think we're going to look to see if these same coalitions continue to stand by Joe Biden.

I mean, after Super Tuesday, I think a lot of folks said, well, the page has turned, Joe Biden now has the momentum, he's probably going to build onto this delegate lead.

But everyone was really cautious, right, because, right before Super Tuesday, it was, well, Bernie Sanders is probably going to be the nominee, because it's going to be difficult for the Democrats to coalesce around one candidate.

They're all splitting the vote.

Bernie Sanders has the pathway here.

But I think, with tonight, what it really sealed is, what started on Super Tuesday is continuing.

And that is the consolidation of this "We need to beat Donald Trump" coalition.

We can call them pragmatists, moderates, but they're around Joe Biden.

They're not going away.

LISA DESJARDINS: Happening fast.

JUDY WOODRUFF: If there's one message that is coming through loud and clear from state after state after state, South, North, West, and East... AMY WALTER: Right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... it's: We want to beat Donald Trump.

AMY WALTER: Right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Lisa Desjardins, Amy Walter, thank you both.

And thank you to all of our correspondents joining us from across the country who are part of our "PBS NewsHour" -- our PBS family.

Wherever you are from, we thank you.

And that does conclude our special program for tonight.

Please join us online for further results as they come in.

That is on our Web site at PBS.org/NewsHour.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

And make sure to join us tomorrow evening on the "NewsHour" for the latest on the coronavirus and the U.S. response to the outbreak.

For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, and good night.