Washington: Former Vice President Joe Biden is continuing his march towards the Democratic Party nomination to challenge President Donald Trump in November by sweeping the latest three primaries.
In the party elections to select the nominee that were held on Tuesday under the shadow of the coronavirus outbreak in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, he defeated Senator Bernie Sanders, the only serious rival left in the race.
Biden, who had stumbled in the first three party elections, has staged a comeback winning 19 of the 27 held so far.
The primary was not held in Ohio as scheduled on Tuesday because of coronavirus disruption. When a judge refused Governor Mike DeWines request to postpone the election, he declared a “health emergency” to stop the polls.
So far, five states have postponed the party elections and DNC President Tom Perez has asked the 23 states that have yet to hold polls to switch to postal ballots.
Sanders, who is a self-described Democratic socialist, is facing pressures to leave the race.
All other candidates except for Tulsi Gabbard have dropped out of the race.
Most of them are backing Biden because they fear that if Sanders became the party nominee Trump would defeat him citing his ideology.
Sanders is persisting in the race to propagate his progressive agenda and challenge the party’s leadership.
After the Tuesday wins, Biden made a direct appeal to Bernie’s younger supporters in a bid to bring about party unity.
“We’ve moved closer to securing the Democratic nomination for president, and we’re doing it by building a broad coalition that we need to win in November,” Biden said in remarks delivered via livestream.
“Sen. Sanders and I may disagree on tactics, but we share a common vision for the need to provide affordable health care for all Americans, reduce income inequality that has risen so dramatically, to tackle the existential threat of our time, climate change,” he added.
