Biden wins Washington primary, capturing 5 out of 6 states
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Joe Biden has been declared the winner of last week’s Democratic
presidential primary in Washington state, giving him victories in five
out of six states that voted March 10.
After nearly a week of
counting votes, the former vice president on Monday held onto a small
lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that turned out to be
insurmountable.
Washington was a state that Sanders had been
hoping to win. In 2016, he won more than two-thirds of the delegates
from the Washington caucuses over Hillary Clinton.
Of the state’s
89 pledged delegates, only 31 are allocated based on the statewide
result. The remaining 58 are determined based on the results of the
state’s 10 congressional districts, and those results might not be
calculated until the election is certified by the secretary of state’s
office, which could be as late as March 27.
Biden won four other states last Tuesday: Missouri, Mississippi, Michigan and Idaho. Sanders won North Dakota.
In
Washington, Democrats used he vote-by-mail presidential primary — moved
up this year from May — for the first time to allocate delegates
instead of the smaller caucuses used in previous years.
Four states — Arizona, Ohio, Illinois and Florida — are scheduled to hold primaries on Tuesday.