Just like the last set of primary elections—which seemingly took place 75 years ago, but actually happened just last Tuesday—Joe Biden had a very good night last night, winning all three states holding primaries. Whether or not those primaries should have happened at all, considering the country is a) in the middle of a life-altering pandemic, and b) voting requires close social contact, something we now need to avoid, is a different question, but I digress.
Biden won the majority of votes in Florida, Illinois, and Arizona, according to the New York Times, and as of early Wednesday morning he had a delegate count of 1,147 to Bernie Sanders’s 861. Though there are still a handful of primaries ahead (including Ohio’s, which was rightfully postponed because of coronavirus) it certainly looks like Biden’s the presumptive nominee. As FiveThirtyEight notes, he performed better than Sanders in most demographics, though Bernie is still beating him among young voters and Latinx voters.
The elections themselves looked nightmarish from a public health perspective. There were a lot of calls to postpone the primaries (including from this very website, as well as from Bernie’s campaign) in an effort to protect vulnerable populations who should still have the right to vote without risking serious illness. A lot of people opted to stay home, and turnout was low. For those who did get to vote, some faced long lines in crowded rooms. Not great for social distancing!
There was, however, an exciting result on Tuesday: Marie Newman, a progressive candidate challenging incumbent Illinois House Rep. Dan Lipinski, managed to unseat him. Lipinski’s had the seat since 2005, and his father had it for over 20 years before him; he’s also notably anti-abortion and opposed the Affordable Care Act. In January, he was one of 207 members of Congress who asked the Supreme Court to “reconsider” both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Se. PA v. Casey, a clear effort to overturn protections for abortion and reproductive rights.
Now he’s gone. Bye!