Joe Biden Wins Virginia Democratic Presidential Primary
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden has won Virginia's Democratic presidential primary, reaffirming the state's preference for moderate candidates over more progressive ones.
Biden won the Virginia primary on Super Tuesday, a key date in the primary calendar when voters in 14 states made their picks. The full results from Super Tuesday were not immediately available.
Biden beat out Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Virginia was a key test for Biden, who has started consolidating support among moderate Democrats after a convincing win Saturday in South Carolina.
His victory shows an ability to win a state with diverse voting blocs, a mix of rural, urban and suburban areas, and many veteran voters.
The Biden victory is also a blow to Bloomberg, who launched his campaign in Virginia and visited the state several times since getting in to the race as a late entrant. He spent more than $2.5 million funding groups that helped the Democrats wrest control of the state legislature and spent lavishly on field staff and television advertising in Virginia.
Sanders also made several campaign stops in Virginia before the primary.
Once a key swing state, Democrats have won every statewide election in Virginia for the last decade, while also flipping partisan majorities in the state legislature and the congressional delegation. Voter antipathy toward Trump, particularly in the state's fast-growing suburbs, have helped fuel that shift.
Virginia is not currently a priority for Trump's reelection campaign, but there is concern among Democrats that if Sanders is his opponent, it will threaten down-ballot races.
Freshman U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who represents a Richmond-area district that Trump won, endorsed Biden right as the polls closed.
Scott Bauer, who voted at a Richmond elementary school, said he reached the decision to vote for Biden in the past few days, after the former vice president's decisive win in the South Carolina primary and after U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who lives in Richmond, endorsed him.
Bauer, a 55-year-old IT consultant, said he worried about Democrats "throwing too much support" to Sanders, who he didn't think could win in November.
Virginia tends to favor moderate Democrats over more progressive rivals.
Hillary Clinton trounced Sanders here during the Democratic presidential primary four years ago. In 2017, former Congressman Tom Perriello won widespread attention running as an unapologetic liberal answer to Trump in a bid to be governor and was endorsed by Sanders. He was soundly defeated in the Democratic primary by a low-key moderate, Ralph Northam, who easily won the general election.
Biden enjoyed the support of much of the party's established leaders like former Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Kaine.
Ivy Austin, a 69-year-old co-owner of a theatrical costume shop, voted for Joe Biden.
"I'm a moderate Democrat and I think it just needs to go to the middle because the others are just too far to the left for me," Austin said.
___ Associated Press writer Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.
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