On the biggest day of the Democratic presidential primary calendar, 14 states — from Maine to California — held primaries on Super Tuesday. There were1,357 delegates at stake, just over a third of the votes at this summer’s nominating convention.
The balloting shaped up as a battle between Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg dropped out Wednesday morning after a disappointing showing, considering the hundreds of millions he’s spent on his campaign. Sen. Elizabeth Warren also fell well short of expectations.
Our reporters in California and other key Super Tuesday states followed the day’s developments and will keep you up to date on the aftermath.
Photos: Super Tuesday | 14 states hold primaries with 1,357 delegates at stake
Joe Biden wins Maine
2020 Democratic primary is a Biden-Sanders race after Bloomberg drops out
WASHINGTON — The Democratic presidential campaign has turned into a two-person contest between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, as former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg dropped out of the race Wednesday and threw his support behind Biden. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was also weighing her future in the dwindling field.
“I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it,” said Bloomberg, ditching his long-shot bid after spending more than $660 million of his own money on the effort and coming up with only a handful of delegates in Tuesday’s 14-state primary. “After yesterday’s vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden.”
In the wake of Tuesday’s voting, which delivered a remarkable comeback for Biden, the race now moves to major battleground states in a contest that splits the party along ideological and generational lines.
After big night for Biden, the fight ahead will test whether he or Sanders can expand their coalitions
WASHINGTON — The drive to political revolution has hit a big speed bump.
In the first coast-to-coast, multi-state primary of the 2020 campaign, former Vice President Joe Biden swept across the South and battled Sen. Bernie Sanders to a draw in key northern states because of overwhelming support from African Americans and a surge from voters who decided just in the last few days whom to support.
The result dashed Sanders’ hope of becoming the prohibitive front-runner as a result of the Super Tuesday voting — an ambition that seemed within his grasp until Biden resurrected his campaign on Saturday in South Carolina.
The Vermont senator was slowed, but not stopped, by a newly energized party establishment that has rallied behind Biden in the last four days. As a result, the Democratic Party that just days ago wondered whether Sanders would emerge from Super Tuesday with an insurmountable delegate lead is now girding for a protracted two-man fight. It will pit an establishment-backed, old-school Democrat against an independent progressive who wants to upend the party.
Michael Bloomberg drops out of the presidential race and endorses Joe Biden
After spending more of his own money than any presidential candidate in history, former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg ended his presidential bid Wednesday after a feeble showing in the Super Tuesday primaries that were critical in his unconventional path to the Democratic nomination.
Bloomberg said he would endorse Joe Biden, the former vice president who pulled a stunning comeback Tuesday and surged into the lead in the nomination race.
Jeff Sessions forced into primary runoff in his bid to regain Senate seat
WASHINGTON — Former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions’ bid for redemption evolved into a struggle for political survival Tuesday as he was forced into a runoff for the Republican Senate nomination from Alabama, a seat he owned for 20 years before his rocky stay in the Trump administration.
Sessions, 73, was hoping the sour relationship he endured with Trump as his first attorney general wouldn’t derail his Alabama comeback bid. He faces a March 31 faceoff against Tommy Tuberville, a political novice and former Auburn football coach.
In incomplete results, Sessions trailed Tuberville slightly and lagged behind the combined total for Tuberville and Rep. Bradley Byrne, his next nearest rival, by nearly 2-1 — a clear danger sign for a household name like Sessions. Alabama requires a runoff if no candidate receives more than half the primary’s votes.
Sessions was one of the most conservative senators when he became Trump’s first attorney general in 2017. Their relationship crumbled and Sessions resigned the next year after he enraged Trump by recusing himself from the Justice Department’s probe of Russian assistance to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Sessions is in a tight race in Tuesday’s primary for the Alabama GOP’s Senate nomination. He gave up the seat in 2017 for an ill-fated stint as Trump’s attorney general.
Sessions cast himself as a Trump loyalist anyway. Trump remained virtually silent, which didn’t help Sessions. His rivals touted their own fealty to the president, with Tuberville saying in an ad, “God sent us Donald Trump.”
The GOP primary winner will be favored in November’s election in the deep-red state against Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat. Jones defeated former Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore in a 2017 special election after Moore was accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with teenagers decades ago when in his 30s. Moore limped this time to a weak fourth-place finish.
Biden wins Texas and 8 other Super Tuesday states; Sanders takes California and 3 more
Joe Biden seized control of the Democratic presidential contest with a string of Super Tuesday victories over Bernie Sanders, as voters across the country cast their ballots determined to pick the candidate they believe stands the best chance of defeating President Trump in November.
Sanders captured the day’s grand prize, California, on the strength of his performance among Latinos and younger voters. The senator also won Colorado and Utah as well as his home state of Vermont.
Biden, who had been all but written off after a stumbling start in Iowa and New Hampshire, emphatically marked his comeback with victories — some by double digits — in Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Most surprisingly, he also won Texas, the day’s other big prize.
L.A. County voters encounter hours-long waits and glitches with brand-new system
Los Angeles voters who showed up to cast ballots in person on Tuesday reported long wait times and operational errors at a number of the county’s newly designed vote centers, experiences that suggested an inauspicious beginning for L.A.’s first fully redesigned election system in more than half a century.
While some Angelenos gave high marks to the new voting machines and applauded the extended hours of operation, a number of the in-person locations were overwhelmed by the throngs of voters looking to participate in the most talked-about California presidential primary in at least a generation. The flow of voters had hardly ebbed by the official end of voting at 8 p.m. Those in line at that time were allowed to stay there until they had a chance to vote.
“This is absurd,” said Jefferson Stewart, a software designer who left the vote center at the Westchester Family YMCA frustrated after waiting 90 minutes to cast his ballot. “If the idea is to make this simpler, it’s gotten much worse.”
California voters choose Bernie Sanders
California, the marquee prize of the 14-state voting bonanza of Super Tuesday, has sided with Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to Associated Press projections.
Sanders was leading in early returns Tuesday night, but the question remains how much of the state’s trove of 415 delegates his competitors will claim. Former Vice President Joe Biden seems likely to have enough support to claim a significant number of delegates, and former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg may as well. But the final delegate numbers will remain unsettled for days, if not weeks, as state officials count millions of provisional and late-arriving mail-in ballots and calculate the state’s complex delegate math.
The projection of Sanders’ win came immediately as the polls closed at 8 p.m., even as many voters remained in line, with widespread complaints of long waits at polling places. The AP based its race call on its exit polls, which found that Sanders had enough of a lead, particularly among votes that were mailed in early, to prevent Biden and Bloomberg from catching up. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was lagging behind in fourth place in early returns but may still be in position to claim some delegates.
Joe Biden wins Texas
How are elections called before the final results are in? The Times explains
Bernie Sanders is leading in California, the state with the most delegates up for grabs in the Democratic presidential primary.
Billy Crystal runs through the candidates at Barbara Boxer’s PAC for a Change fundraiser
As election night returns came in, actor Billy Crystal ran through the Democratic field at a fundraiser in West Hollywood:
Bernie Sanders: “an old man at Canter’s trying to get the attention of a waiter.”
Joe Biden had as strong a showing on Tuesday as he did during the first Super Tuesday, “when he won eight of the 13 colonies.”
And Michael Bloomberg? “I’d like to make a joke about Mike Bloomberg. But he paid me $3 million not to say that.”
Crystal was among the entertainers at a fundraiser for former Sen. Barbara Boxer’s PAC for a Change, which is focused on keeping the Democratic majority in the House and winning the Senate and the White House. About 400 people — a mix of elected officials, celebrities and Democratic activists — nibbled on quinoa salad, sliders and hummus at the Abbey in West Hollywood as they watched the returns and mixed some levity with their politics.
“This has been quite a historic night. We don’t know the delegate count,” Boxer, a Biden backer, told the crowd, a mix of Sanders and Biden supporters, before reading off each state that held a primary today and the results. “Listen closely to what happened tonight. Because it is one of the most historic turnarounds, I think, ever.”
California Democratic Party Chairman Rusty Hicks explained that the end results — and final delegate allocation — would not be clear anytime soon because of the Golden State’s size.
“If you are looking for a quick fix, you’re not going to get it tonight. You’re going to get some results, you’re going to get a general sense of the direction,” Hicks said. “Ultimately it’s going to take probably a couple weeks or so to fully understand where every delegate is going to be allocated here in California.”
Singer Lisa Loeb sang “Stay (I Missed You),” Jason Alexander self-deprecatingly compared himself to Crystal, actors Aisha Tyler and Kirsten Vangsness read a suffragette’s essay, and singer Thelma Houston read Barbara Jordan’s keynote address to the 1976 Democratic convention.
“We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in the search of our future,” she read. “We are a people in search of a national community. We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America.”
Why does it take so long to get election results in California?
If the measure of a successful election were only how quickly the results are released, then California would be a disaster. But that’s not how election officials in the state see it. They’re focused on accuracy over speed.
“We prioritize the right to vote and election security over rushing the vote count,” Secretary of State Alex Padilla said last week. “In California, we’d rather get it right than get it fast.”
County election officials have 30 days to count all ballots and audit the tally. Padilla will then certify the results by April 10.
Last call for voters at Shepherd of the Valley Church
“This is it, if you’re not in line you’re not in,” poll worker Nick Franchino, an L.A. County GIS manager, called at 8:01 p.m. to the people in the end of the line that stretched outside Shepherd of the Valley Church and around the corner.
He let the last two women run in before he closed it off.
“You have to tell them it’s closed and you’re the last person,” he told the last person in line, while taking a picture of her and the others at the end of the line in West Hills.
At 8:08 p.m. as he counted voters in line from back to front: 222.
Lesley Kyle put her twin 5-year-olds to bed with just enough time to rush to the church, the closest vote center.
She barely made it. Her husband, home with the kids, already mailed in his ballot, but Kyle “wanted to just go over and verify my research on the judges and the measures,” she said.
Kyle planned to vote for Joe Biden for president. “Who my children see is important to me, who represents my children, and the future and the well-being of my kids, is important,” Kyle said.
“I think that he is the candidate that exudes the most decency.”
Barbara Boxer calls Joe Biden’s campaign turnaround ‘extraordinary’
Former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, who has known Joe Biden since the 1980s and endorsed his candidacy, said she had grown concerned about the former vice president’s prospects and was relieved he was able to turn it around.
“To think that Joe Biden has come back in this fashion, without money and without organization, is extraordinary,” the California Democrat said in an interview at the Abbey in West Hollywood. “And I have to say Jim Clyburn, I believe, is the one who put the wind at his back, and he basically said to America, ‘I know Joe, and Joe is a good person,’ and that just woke everybody up.”
Boxer made the remarks at a fundraiser/election night watch party for her PAC for a Change at the Abbey. About 400 people attended, including actors Jason Alexander, Rosanna Arquette, Billy Crystal, Frances Fisher, Aisha Tyler, Kirsten Vangsness, producer Andy Lassner and singer Lisa Loeb.
Boxer said she had been “very worried” about Biden’s performance in much of the campaign, but was confident he would come back because of the number of times that he has rebounded from hardship and tragedy, and because she truly believed he was the best candidate to unite the country.
“What I love about Joe is he doesn’t demonize anybody; why should you? Why should you demonize people who have money? Bernie Sanders used to demonize millionaires; now he’s a millionaire so he doesn’t demonize millionaires, he demonizes billionaires,” Boxer said, adding that there are good and bad people in every group. “It has nothing to do with your bank accounts, just what your values are.”
She added that she believes that Biden would be able to accumulate enough delegates to avoid a contested convention, but if he didn’t, there was a system in place to select a nominee.
“And Bernie Sanders wrote the rules for that system. So we’re prepared; I’m not afraid of it at all,” she said. “We’ll make it happen.”
Bloomberg puts best face on a bad Tuesday night, says he’s a ‘contender’
As rivals Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden began racking up victories in primaries across the nation on Tuesday, Michael R. Bloomberg tried to put the best face on his middling performance after spending more than half a billion dollars on his campaign.
“As the results come in, here’s what is clear,” the former New York City mayor told supporters in West Palm Beach, Fla. “No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one else thought was possible. In just three months, we’ve gone from 1% in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president.”
The 16 Democratic presidential contests on Tuesday were the first with Bloomberg’s name on the ballot. The lone victory for the billionaire candidate was American Samoa. In some states that Bloomberg lost, he at least reached the 15% threshold to start acquiring some delegates.
Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey told reporters the candidate would reassess his position Wednesday morning after reviewing the Super Tuesday results.
A Bloomberg spokeswoman, Julie Wood, urged the media not to read too much into Sheekey’s remarks, saying on Twitter that “any campaign would reassess after tonight, after next week, after any time there was a vote. ... This doesn’t mean anything.”
Speaking a short drive away from Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s resort, Bloomberg focused on a general election showdown with Trump, hitting him on everything from his tweeting to his golfing.
“I know you’re not used to seeing a New Yorker in southern Florida in late winter,” he said. “But unlike the president, I didn’t come here to golf or reveal classified information to members at Mar-a-Lago.”
He said his campaign had the resources to win in November in states that Democrats lost in 2016, like Florida. He also dismissed the importance of strong debate performances, a reference to his own poorly reviewed appearances.
Bernie Sanders takes aim at Biden and Bloomberg
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has been underestimated since the beginning of his political career. That was his opening message at a rally in his home state as results from Super Tuesday states rolled in.
He won against all odds when he ran for mayor of Burlington, he told the crowd in Essex Junction, Vt.
“And when we began this race for the president, everybody said it couldn’t be done,” he said. “But tonight I tell you in absolute confidence, we are going to win the Democratic nomination.”
Sanders took aim at a part of Democratic Party that he says does not want him to win the nomination.
“We are not only taking on the corporate establishment, we’re taking on the political establishment,” he said to cheers. “You cannot beat Trump with the same old, same old, kind of politics. What we need is a new politics that brings working-class people into our political movement.”
Sanders also took shots at rivals former Vice President Joe Biden and former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
“If it comes out to be a campaign in which we have one candidate who is standing up for the working class and the middle class, we’re going to win that election,” he said.
“And if we have another candidate who has received contributions from at least 60 billionaires, we’re going to win that election. And and if there is another candidate in the race who is spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, we’re going to tell him, ‘In America, you cannot buy elections.’”
Watch: California primary analysis
Joe Biden brings the energy to L.A. in big showing on Super Tuesday
A joyful and energized Joe Biden took the stage in a Baldwin Hills park in Los Angeles, telling hundreds of supporters, “It’s a good night, and it seems to be getting even better. They don’t call it Super Tuesday for nothing.”
Biden lambasted his critics and the news media for writing him off after poor performances in the first three contests, before he ran away with the vote in South Carolina after a decisive endorsement from Rep. James E. Clyburn.
“I am here to report we are very much alive, and make no mistake about it, this campaign will send Donald Trump packing!” said Biden, who was at a near shout for much of his speech, in contrast to previous appearances over the past year when he has been much more of a soft-spoken, low-key presence.
Pivoting to a stump speech that lasted just over 10 minutes, Biden gave a preview of the issues he will undoubtedly highlight as he vies to outlast his top competitor, Bernie Sanders: “affordable and accessible” healthcare, lower drug prices, as well as a “promise” to cure illnesses including cancer and diabetes.
He also cited gun control, more affordable college and a recommitment to fighting climate change — in short, many of the same campaign planks as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, just more modest in reach.
But Biden had a much more incisive boast over one of Sanders’ electability arguments: turnout.
“People are talking about a revolution; we started a movement,” Biden said. “We increased turnout. Turnout turned out for us!”
A lesson in democracy and a very cool sticker
When asked why she voted for Bernie Sanders, Marissa Jaques pulled her youngest child forward and said: “Because of him. Even though he’s 5, we can start thinking ahead. And the idea of college for all is a wonderful, doable idea.”
Her boy, Tyson, who is Mexican Polynesian, proudly pointed to the “I Voted” sticker next to the superheroes on his T-shirt. His mother had explained the democratic process to him and his 9-year-old sister Monday night. The kindergartner insisted that she wait for him to finish school Tuesday afternoon so he could go to the polls and watch. “It’s cool,” he said, jumping off a bench outside a Fountain Valley community center.
Jaques, an office manager of a medical practice who lives in Garden Grove, said she also endorses Sanders’ push for universal healthcare. “How can you say it won’t work when it has worked in so many thriving countries?” she asked. “If we adopt his policy, that would relieve so much financial stress that we have while caring for our kids and the elderly. What are we waiting for?”
Jaques, 36, said she heard people complaining about long lines waiting to cast their ballots. “That to me is a plus because having lines means a bigger turnout. There’s absolutely no inconvenience.”
She said Tyson’s special treat for today is the vote sticker.
“No need for sweets. This is the reward.”
Bernie Sanders wins California
California, the marquee prize of the 14-state voting bonanza of Super Tuesday, has sided with Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to Associated Press projections.
Sanders was leading in early returns Tuesday night, but the question remains if his competitors will also lay claim to some portion of the state’s trove of 415 delegates.
The projection came immediately as the polls closed at 8 p.m., even as many voters remained in line, with widespread complaints of long lags in polling places. The Sanders campaign had filed a complaint asking for centers to remain open for additional hours to accommodate the delays.
The full picture of California’s choice will not come into view for days, if not weeks, as the state’s complex delegate math and expansive voting procedures make for an arduous counting process.
California polls set to close at 8 p.m.
California polls were set to close Tuesday at 8 p.m., opening the arduous process of ballot counting that could last for weeks in the nation’s biggest Democratic presidential primary.
But before the polls closed, the Sanders campaign filed an emergency request to keep L.A. County polls open until 10 p.m., citing reports of long lines and some voting problems. By law, those waiting in line at 8 p.m. must be allowed to vote, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
By late Tuesday night, it could become clear who won most races on the California ballot, including the presidential contest.
But in close races, it could take days or weeks to determine the outcome. The delegate allocation in the Democratic presidential primary could also take as long as 30 days to finalize.
“In California we’d rather get it right than get it fast,” Secretary of State Alex Padilla said.
Not all the ballots are in. By law, those mailed to county elections officials that are postmarked by Tuesday and received by Friday must be counted.
California was the last of 14 states to close polling stations in the Super Tuesday primaries.
Joe Biden wins Massachusetts
VOTER VOICES: ‘Tío Bernie is for the working class’
Election day may as well have been Christmas Eve for Santa Clarita resident Karen Cazares.
The 54-year-old San Jose native of Puerto Rican descent announced on Twitter she and her family had all voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders. Cazares cast her ballot at a Santa Clarita elementary school, but shared photos of her husband, 56-year-old Fernando, and her two sons donning Bernie shirts.
“One of the inaccuracies you see out there is this ‘Bernie bro’ thing that says all of Bernie’s supporters are white males,” Cazares said. “Look at my family. I’m Puerto Rican, my husband is Mexican and our boys are Mexiricans. There’s your diversity, the same diversity you’ll see at any rally.”
Cazares, who voted for Obama-Biden in 2008 and 2012 and Sanders in 2016 in the primaries before voting for Hillary Clinton in the presidential elections, says she was introduced to Sanders by her son, Fernando Jr.
“When you do the research, you see that ‘Tío Bernie’ is for the working class, for healthcare, for taxing billionaires, for standing up for the American people,” Cazares said. “People get hung up on the ‘socialist’ thing, but he’s fighting for what we believe in.”
Cazares has been to two Sanders rallies in the last 18 months and estimates about a dozen family members will vote for him.
“He talks about the diversity and change we’ve been talking about in our community for years,” she said. “This isn’t a rushed decision. We’ve had this conversation for years.”
Boyle Heights resident Aaron Alvarez took to Twitter as well to announce he had voted for Sanders.
“His voter outreach with the Latino community is second to none,” Alvarez wrote in a direct message. “His commitment to helping the lower classes and our communities speaks to me and many other Chicanos.”
Alvarez, a freelance illustrator/artist, pointed to the expansion of “Medicare for all” as being very important to him.
“He’s the only candidate to go all-in for it; I cannot help but give him my vote,” Alvarez, 29, said. “He is also the only candidate who has vowed to abolish ICE, where others would only ‘fix’ it. These things and more matter to me and to the greater community.”
Bernie Sanders wins Utah
VOTER VOICES: ‘That was amazing.’ Voters make their choices on their phones to speed up the process
With an hour’s wait, friends Gloria Rojas, 32, and Vanessa Ramirez, 24, scrolled through their Democratic ballots on their phones while waiting in line Tuesday afternoon at Cal State Los Angeles’ on-campus vote center.
“That was amazing,” Rojas said of being able to access her ballot on her phone and finalizing the process once she got to a booth.
The graduate students, who are majoring in psychology, said they both voted for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Rojas said she’s donated more to his campaign this time around than when he ran in 2016, usually in $2.70 increments and a few dollars more when she can spare it.
“It’s never extra, it’s just doable,” she said. By giving to his campaign when she can, she added, it shows her children that that’s how they support what they believe in.
Ramirez, a West Covina resident, acknowledged that by supporting Sanders, the process of seeing change in the government is “only the first part.”
“It’s like a marathon,” she said.
And who wants a safe bet anyway, Rojas said, when their generation is looking for progressive change on issues they care about?
“If you really want to see change, why go with who’s safe?” she said, referencing moderate candidate former Vice President Joe Biden. “For a lot of us here who are affected by these policies, we don’t need a safe bet.”
Together they climbed up the stairs of King Hall to go to their next class, and they stopped to pose with a photo of a young Sanders being arrested at a protest. It had been on the wall for years, they said, since before they were undergrads at Cal State.
Delays at senior center polling location leads to concern over coronavirus
Rick and Sandie Perez considered themselves fortunate as they left the El Sereno Senior Citizen Center at about 5:30 p.m.
The couple had been in line for nearly an hour and, according to Rick, that was “because we showed up early.”
The line outside the building stretched around the block onto Kings Place, with about 50 people waiting to use only a handful of new electronic voting machines.
“There were only five machines in there,” said Rick, 55. “Now, these people in line are going to have to wait longer than that.”
That delay also cultivated coronavirus concerns, something the pair hadn’t thought about.
“We didn’t plan on spending one hour with a bunch of people,” said Sandie, 53, who did not bring a mask, but did have a few bottles of hand sanitizer.
The El Sereno residents were in agreement on their candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, whom Rick valued for his experience and Sandie admired for his leadership during the Obama administration.
It was a desire to end politics as usual that led El Sereno residents Tony Sulecio, 46, and Linda Perez, 49, to vote for Bernie Sanders.
“Bernie is not afraid to take on the establishment, to hit back at big government and to dream big,” Perez said. “He offers hope to us and he doesn’t back down.”
The election was particularly special for Sulecio, who registered to vote for the first time in his life.
“I’m voting for Bernie because he stands up for immigrants like me and talks about us,” Sulecio said. “I don’t see anyone else doing that.”
The pair waited in line for over an hour and also were not impressed with the lack of new machines.
“It took a long time,” Sulecio said.
Neither, however, was too concerned with the coronavirus.
“It’s not something I’m really thinking about,” Perez said. “I’m more worried about the flu.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘Old baggage’? Sure. But you have to be pragmatic
Michael Imhof, a 41-year-old environmental scientist who lives in Homewood, Ala., said he favored Elizabeth Warren and thought she was a genius. But after a long phone conversation Monday night with a friend who is a political scientist, he decided that voting for her would be a mistake.
“He persuaded me that a vote for Warren would basically be a vote for Trump,” he said. “As much as I like her, she won’t pull centrist voters.”
And so Imhof, a former anarchist who described himself as a democratic socialist at heart, found himself at the polling station Tuesday planning to vote for a candidate whom he described as “old baggage” and “too centrist.”
The system, he said, worked on compromise. And so he voted for former Vice President Joe Biden.
“We need to beat Trump,” he said. “We’re seeing telltale signs of Germany in the 1930s.”
VOTER VOICES: From suburban Houston
As he walked up to the suburban Houston library that serves as his polling place, Vijay Shah caught sight of a man in a red and white Trump shirt.
“I wanted to tell him that he’s a baboon,” Shah said.
Instead, he went inside and voted for a Democrat.
Surrounding Fort Bend County is the largest in the country and among the most diverse, 65% minority. But it’s still largely Republican, in part because Democrats have struggled to win over Asian American immigrants.
Shah, 72, a retired computer systems worker, said he wasn’t initially sure which Democrat to vote for — just that he really wanted to get rid of President Trump. His choice came down to former Vice President Joe Biden or former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. He decided Biden was “more of a politician,” telling people what they want to hear. Shah had lived in New York City while Bloomberg was mayor, liked his style and ultimately voted for him.
“He’s a good manager and he can work with the other party,” Shah said.
VOTER VOICES: At the Ace Hotel
Stephanie Leiter, a 60-year-old real estate attorney, briefly flirted with the idea of casting her ballot for Michael R. Bloomberg. But her post-college-age children, who are both Bernie Sanders supporters, weren’t having it.
“They were very disturbed,” she said. Leiter was standing outside the Ace Hotel downtown, where the line to vote snaked in through the building, across the Art Deco lobby, and up two flights of stairs before reaching the official voting center.
Leiter said she had been “taken in” by all the ads.
“How could you do that? Are you crazy?” She recalled her children asking her. So she too joined the Bernie brigade.
“Sometimes you raise them so well and they end up teaching you, huh?” said the woman behind Leiter in line, who was sipping an iced coffee and declined to say which candidate she was supporting.
“I decided that I needed to stop thinking about who was most electable and just vote my conscience,” Leiter said.
Dani Cardillo, a 40-year-old with a bleached-blonde mohawk and a “queer” pin affixed to her jean jacket, stood just ahead of Leiter in line.
Cardillo, who works in tech at Netflix, said she would be supporting Elizabeth Warren.
Why? “Well, it’s about time we had a lady in that building,” she said, jokingly putting her hands on her hips as she spoke. But for Cardillo, voting for Warren was about more than just gender. She said agrees with all her stances, and admires her myriad plans.
She said she “unfortunately” didn’t think Warren would win the state, but that wouldn’t change her voting plans.
“I just really believe in her,” she said. “I believe that’s the right thing — if you believe in someone, you stand by them.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘Right person for the right time’
Habib Hussein wasn’t bothered by his 30-minute wait to cast his ballot in Culver City; he was anticipating an even longer line, and besides, he said, that’s part of the fun of going in person to the polls.
“I wanted to get the good feeling of voting,” Hussein said.The 30-year-old airport shuttle driver said he had that feeling after picking Bernie Sanders, whom he also supported in 2016.
“He speaks to a lot of people’s minds, especially young people, people having a hard time paying rent,” he said.
He also admired Sanders’ foreign policy views, which he said were not influenced by groups like AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying organization.
“I think he’s the right person for the right time,” he said.
Mike Feuer: Early voting in California might have hurt Joe Biden
Joe Biden supporter and Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer has a regret about the former vice president’s otherwise strong performance on Super Tuesday: early voting in California.
“Obviously it would have been better had there been no early voting in California, because then tonight he would have an extraordinary chance to win,” Feuer said in an interview in a Baldwin Hills park in Los Angeles, where Biden supporters were gathering for an evening rally with the candidate.
“As it is, there’s been early voting; a lot of those votes have gone to candidates who have since dropped out,” Feuer said. “Still, I think he’s going to be very competitive tonight here. I think he’s going to do very well with voters who voted today.”
Feuer clarified that he thinks “there is value in having early voting; it’s a much longer, complicated conversation. But it just happens that tonight early voting in California will inure to [Vermont Sen. Bernie] Sanders’ benefit in part because early voters who might have been Biden voters voted for somebody else. But I think the vice president will survive that.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘I ...want to go with my gut, and Bernie’s my gut.’
For Trisha Zaldivar, 53, the new voting system was a quick and easier experience than in the past, she said as she left the 31st District PTSA office in Lake Balboa Tuesday. For her daughter Maya Zaldivar, 19, it was the only system she’s known.
The San Fernando Valley residents voted for different presidential candidates, their ballots representative of what some say is generational divide in the Democratic Party.
Maya cast her first vote ever for Bernie Sanders. “He’s just, he’s honest and I like that. ... you can’t dig up dirt on Bernie because there is none,” the L.A. Valley college music student said, an “I voted” sticker affixed above the rainbow and unicorn on her t-shirt.
“True,” her mom agreed, though she voted for former Vice President Joe Biden.
“If I thought Bernie could beat Trump, I voted for Bernie,” Trisha said. But she was a supporter of the Obama administration, and Biden seemed like a potential winner.
That fleeting thought caused Maya to pause before voting, too, she said. “I think personally that Bernie is the best candidate and I don’t want to be like, ‘Oh well this is more realistic.’ I ...want to go with my gut, and Bernie’s my gut.”
“Good for you,” her mom said. “I’m proud of you. I’m very proud of you.”
Joe Biden wins Arkansas
Joe Biden wins Minnesota
Joe Biden wins Tennessee
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VOTER VOICES: ‘I’m a young professional with $200,000 in loan debt’
“I love everything about [Elizabeth] Warren. She has progressive ideas I care about,” said Viet Thai Phan, a 32-year-old municipal attorney from Santa Ana. “I’m a young professional with $200,000 in loan debt.”
She says even if she was not eligible for the Massachusetts senator’s plan to forgive student loans, she would agree with the idea. “It’s the right thing to do.”
She loves Warren’s proposals to tax the ultra-wealthy and says that “she has amazing platforms for people of color.”
VOTER VOICES: Voting for Warren with a toddler in tow
Brynn Jones, 33, towed her 19-month-old daughter, Lennon, to a downtown Sacramento vote center in a red Radio Flyer wagon. The medical social worker dropped off her ballot and said she voted for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“I feel like she has the most thorough and laid out policies — just across the board,” said Jones of Sacramento. “I pretty much align very closely with everything she’s rolled out.”
Remnants of chocolate chip cookies that Jones used to bribe her daughter to make the trip stuck out of the corner of the toddler’s mouth. Jones said she wanted to set a good example about voting for Lennon, whose pink sunglasses matched a bow in her hair.
“I’m just hoping that we start young with her and get her to see how important it is,” Jones said.
VOTER VOICES: L.A. County supervisor’s race
The presidential campaign is the marquee race today, but Lisa Marie Desai was most motivated by more local matters: the L.A. County supervisor’s race in the 2nd District, in which she is backing state Sen. Holly Mitchell.
The Culver City-based stenographer’s pick at the top of the ticket: Elizabeth Warren, even though she acknowledged her candidate’s uphill climb.
“If Bernie wins, I will totally make calls and get on board,” said Desai, 37, “but I want a woman and I love her policies. She’s just like a younger Bernie — a younger, female Bernie.”
Some voters drop Jackie Lacey after her husband’s confrontation with protesters
The confrontation on Monday morning between Jackie Lacey’s husband and Black Lives Matter protesters was fresh in the minds of many voters. Video from the scene showed Lacey’s husband, David, pointing a gun at unarmed protesters gathered outside the couple’s home and threatening to shoot them.
During Tuesday’s police commission meeting, Black Lives Matter organizer Tabatha Jones Jolivet asked LAPD Chief Michel Moore during a public comment period why the department had not arrested Lacey’s husband.
“Why, Chief Moore, have you not arrested David Lacey?” she demanded, speaking over the voice of the president of the commission, who interjected to tell her she wasn’t addressing the appropriate agenda item.
Melina Abdullah, a Black Lives Matter organizer and Cal State L.A. professor who said she was one of three people at whom the gun was pointed, ran into multiple people at a voting center on Tuesday who said that the confrontation had affected their vote.
Two of her neighbors told her that they had been undecided about Lacey, but that the confrontation solidified their vote for candidate Rachel Rossi.
“I think it did have a negative impact on her campaign,” said Abdullah, who declined to share which candidate she was supporting.
The district attorney’s gun-wielding husband added a new twist to the campaign. But her family had reason to be frustrated too.
Joe Biden wins Oklahoma
VOTER VOICES: Visitors see democracy in action. ‘I wish I could have this privilege in my lifetime’
At the Fountain Valley Community Center, on the edge of Orange County’s Little Saigon, two tourists from Vietnam accompanied a family member to the polling station to witness what they called “basic democracy.”
Larry Nguyen, 34, had left suburban Hanoi to scout for trade business in Los Angeles and had not heard of Super Tuesday or known of its significance. “It’s great that the freedom America allows its citizens and to see citizens taking advantage of it. We, of course, don’t have that where we come from, and that’s what makes us realize again why the USA is the best,” said the visitor, heading to Santa Ana next.
He asked not to be photographed, fearing discipline for his sentiment upon returning to Vietnam. “I wish I could have this privilege in my lifetime — to actually watch a debate even in person.”
Visitor Vinh Nguyen, 39, also marveled at the concept of “a pre-election before the real election. Imagine learning more about multiple political parties and having your choice of candidates. That is ideal.”
VOTER VOICES: Placer County contractor whipsawed by Trump, Newsom policies
Disabled veteran Greg Clark thought this would be the election he switched from Republican to Democrat. The Rocklin (Placer County) resident said he was “not happy with all the BS Trump is doing.”
But then California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law written by a Democratic lawmaker that caused him to lose his job, he said.
Clark worked as an independent contractor doling out food samples at Costco and Sam’s Club before a law limiting the use of such workers was signed last year. Clark is now helping gather signatures to change Assembly Bill 5 through a ballot measure largely funded by the app-based companies Uber, Lyft and DoorDash, whose drivers were required to be reclassified as employees under the law.
“This law was signed by our Democratic governor, and that honestly changed how I voted in the presidential race,” Clark, 60, said. “I was considering Bernie.”
Standing outside the Placer County Elections Office’s warehouse in Rocklin, which served as a polling place, Clark gathered signatures for various other ballot measures. For some measures, he is being paid $1 per signature, which he says gives him a little gas money and keeps him active in the community.
“There has been a steady crowd today,” Clark said of the polling place. “It was busier this morning and will pick up again after work.”
Bernie Sanders wins Colorado
Joe Biden supporters soak in early primary victories ahead of rally in Baldwin Hills
While waiting in line to see Joe Biden speak later Tuesday evening at a Baldwin Hills park, dozens of his supporters were feeling the magic they knew had been missing from his candidacy for much of the campaign.
“The momentum has changed in his favor,” said Jose Marroquin, a 67-year-old retiree from Los Angeles who had decided he was supporting Biden as soon as the former vice president entered the race. “I am actually thinking that the tide has turned.”
James Morgan, a 79-year-old retiree from Los Angeles, had also supported Biden’s candidacy from the beginning, citing his experience in the Obama administration.
“Once he said he was running, I said, ‘That’s my man right there,’ ” Morgan said while waiting in line.
At the same time, Morgan admitted that he had been “skeptical from the beginning” after seeing Biden repeatedly battered in the early months of the campaign.
“Where’s the fight?” Morgan recalled wondering then. “He should be fired up.”
But after a strong debate and a decisive victory in South Carolina on Saturday, “I feel that he’s got the flow back on,” Morgan said.
In recent appearances, “it looked like he had a bit more energy,” and Morgan feels “pretty good about his chances right now.”
Dana Douglas, a 64-year-old attorney from Claremont, had been deciding among Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., until recently.
“I held onto my ballot for a long time,” said Douglas, who votes by mail. But after Warren and Buttigieg failed to show enough strength with a broad swath of the party, Douglas mailed in her ballot for Biden, thinking that “he had the best chance to get the nomination, and I’m certain he can beat Trump like a bad piece of meat.”
Her decision was only validated by Biden’s command performance in South Carolina. While she stood in line, she was following his strong showings in the East Coast Super Tuesday states — including the home state of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Biden’s current top competitor.
“He appears to beat the 15% threshold in Vermont, and he’s going to take some of Bernie Sanders’ delegates there, which thrills me,” Douglas said, adding: “I’m very excited about where we’re at.”
VOTER VOICES: Vietnam vet says process was ‘as easy as pie’
At the Drake Park voting center in Long Beach, there was no line to vote Tuesday morning. A few voters stood behind voting stations at a time, and at least a dozen volunteers were available to help them with the new system.
Donald Davison, a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran, said he read a few articles about the new voting system before coming out to vote Tuesday, and expected the worst.
He put the negative articles about potential problems out of his mind, and when he walked out of the voting center, he proudly wore his voting sticker on his veteran vest. “It was as easy as pie,” he said.
“You always read the negative stuff first,” he said. “It arouses questions for me. ... That’s what keeps people from doing what they’re supposed to be doing: fear.”
Davison recalled being a teenager in Louisiana in the ‘60s and going to door-to-door encouraging his black neighbors to vote. “To see it come from how it was in the ‘60s and how it is now, it’s just so simple. It’s been a big change.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘Everyone, at some point, will need a hand’
In the moments after Daniel Trollinger cast his vote for Bernie Sanders, his mind jumped back to that day from 20 years ago.
He was in his late 30s and he had built a life that felt stable — a wife, two kids, a job he enjoyed as an audio engineer. Then, while sitting at a red light one day in 2000, a school bus rammed into his car. In the years ahead, Trollinger said, he was rear-ended two more times and ended up in a wheelchair.
By the end of it all — the hospitalizations, four back surgeries, getting laid off — his family had gone bankrupt. They struggled to pay for health insurance, and once, during a two-month stint when they had no coverage, his daughter fell and hurt her wrist. The bills snowballed. Even now, two decades later, Trollinger, 58, of Santa Clarita, still owes more than $150,000 in hospital bills.
“I was anybody,” Trollinger says, his chin quivering slightly. “Anybody just sitting at that red light.”
The Affordable Care Act was a godsend for his family, Trollinger said, and now he’d like to see the country move toward “Medicare for all,” which Vermont Sen. Sanders has said he will implement. Republicans have done a good job of painting socialism as a terrible thing, Trollinger says, but that’s not how he sees things. Not when he thinks about that day at the red light.
“Everyone, at some point,” he said, “will need a hand.”
VOTER VOICES: Long Beach retiree says ballot process was ‘so easy’
Ruth Uffer, a 73-year-old retired registered nurse from Long Beach, said she found her voting experience “phenomenal.”
“Last time I came, the line was all the way around. The whole process is so easy.”
She said she liked that some voting centers were open for 24 hours, making it accessible to those with night jobs.
Uffer said she is unsure about whether other states have made similar changes, but that at least California has made a huge difference in doing the most to improve voter turnout.
“We’re at least making every effort to give people the opportunity to go out and vote,” she said.
As for the electronic tablet, she said she likes that “it’s user-friendly and the fact that you can review it again. You have lots of time to visually review it and you can see it again on paper. It’s very efficient,” Uffer said.
Uffer said she looked forward to telling her friends and neighbors about the experience in hopes it’ll motivate them to vote as well.
The retired nurse said she read up on all the measures and candidates on the ballot. As a homeowner, she felt concerned about certain measures that would raise taxes, since she is on a fixed income.
“Already, people cannot afford to live,” she said.
As for her preference for president, she narrowed it down to Michael R. Bloomberg and Joe Biden before coming to vote. She decided on Biden, for his experience and familiarity, she said.
“I became familiar with him during the Obama administration. I never saw him be reckless. He was a good diplomat. He’s been in politics a long time, so he understands politics.”
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Five takeaways from Super Tuesday — so far
WASHINGTON — Got whiplash yet? The Democratic presidential race abruptly compressed Tuesday from a muddled mess of multiple candidates to a classic contest between an old-guard liberal and a lefty insurgent.
Whether former Vice President Joe Biden’s surge was timely enough and potent enough to keep rival Bernie Sanders from gaining an insurmountable lead toward the nomination will be much clearer when California finishes counting its votes. And that could take a while. But Biden was well on his way as first results came in and he notched decisive victories in three big Southern states: Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia.
Those newcomer pragmatists who once hoped to go the distance? They are background noise. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke all dropped out of the race and are urging Democrats to back Biden.
So what are the top takeaways from Super Tuesday, the biggest day on the Democrats’ primary calendar?
The establishment strikes back
Bernie keeps booming
Half a billion dollars for … what?
Warren won’t give up the war
Gliding toward melee in Milwaukee
VOTER VOICES: A Bernie Sanders / Joe Biden ticket?
“I go by my feelings and intuition and they tell me Bernie, even though I worry about his age,” Ann Lake, 80, said of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders before dropping off her ballot at the Brookfield Manor clubhouse in Huntington Beach.
The retired bank checker likes former Vice President Joe Biden too and hopes Sanders would pick him as vice president. “He’s been there so he knows what to do.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘I respect Joe Biden a lot, but ideally ...’
“I love Bernie,” said Azam Behar, 63, of Irvine. “His ideal is basic human rights and peace and no war, and that is what we need.”
But the retired nurse, who came to the U.S. from Iran 20 years ago, didn’t vote for the Vermont senator.
Behar had a nagging feeling that former Vice President Joe Biden had a better chance of beating President Trump, so she cast her ballot for him.
“I respect Joe Biden a lot, but ideally ... in the future we will have someone like Bernie,” she said.
VOTING VOICES: She finds Sanders’ cancel-all-student-debt plan especially appealing
For a while, Sandy Cambrano waffled between Biden and Sanders.
The 28-year-old Palmdale resident, who works as a surgical tech at a hospital, said she likes them both, but finally reached some clarity about a month ago, after reading more about Biden’s son, Hunter, and his ties to a Ukrainian gas company.
“That turned me off,” she said, shaking her head. That left her with Sanders, whose cancel-all-student-debt plan is especially appealing to her, because both Cambrano and her husband have deep debt from college.
Voters young and old cast ballots, decry coronavirus fears
A shift in voting demographics took place when the bell rang at 3 p.m. at the Rosemead High School voting center.
That was when the school dismissed class for the day, after which a trickle of young voters headed to the auditorium to cast their first-ever ballots. An hour earlier, nearly all voters were 50 or older.
“Now I can say I’m part of the process,” said 18-year-old senior Kelvin Voong, a Rosemead resident. “This was a pretty easy and quick way to vote on the new machines.”
Like many youths, Voong voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary.
“He really seems to understand us, and I think he’s the sanest candidate out there,” Voong said.
Rose Huynh, 20, also voted for Sanders in her first election and believes the democratic socialist has a better understanding of the issues than most candidates.
“He doesn’t think we should be paying for college for the rest of our lives,” Huynh said. “It’s a burden we shouldn’t have to carry for years.”
As for the new electronic voting system, Huynh said she liked what she saw.
“This is for millennials and Gen Z because we know how to handle electronics,” she said.
Neither Voong nor Huynh wore masks or took any safety precautions, such as using hand sanitizers before or after voting, due to coronavirus concerns.
“The more we talk about the coronavirus, the more we spread the panic,” he said. “I’m young and healthy. What do I have to worry about? If I was old, then it would be different.”
Rosemead resident Arais Chavez, 24, also didn’t see a reason to cover up on election day.
“I just think it’s something that we shouldn’t be worried about right now,” she said. “It’s a disease that targets the elderly and we should protect them, but everyone else is fine.”
Rosemead couple Jose and Maria Ahumada were not comfortable with Sanders and cast their vote for Joe Biden, whom they consider “the safe candidate.”
“I like Bernie, but he’s talking to the kids, to the youths, and isn’t offering much to the seniors,” said Maria, 75. “I don’t need free tuition.”
Jose, 84, aligned with Biden because he served as President Obama’s vice president.
As for COVID-19, both laughed at the suggestion of wearing a mask or taking precautionary measures.
“Why would I wear a mask?” Maria said. “I’ve already lived a good life.”
Voters find new system easy, if they did their research ahead of time
Warren calls on Democrats to ‘cast a vote that will make you proud’
Shortly after news broke that she’d lost two Super Tuesday primaries, Elizabeth Warren dashed onstage at an election night rally in Detroit, but she was of no mind to concede defeat.
Instead, the Massachusetts senator told more than 2,000 supporters that voters should not try to be strategists when they decide which Democrat to back for president.
“Pundits have gotten it wrong over and over,” Warren told the crowd minutes after former Vice President Joe Biden was proclaimed the winner of the Virginia primary and Sen. Bernie Sanders was named the victor in his home state of Vermont.
“Here’s my advice: Cast a vote that will make you proud,” Warren said, noting that balloting was still underway in California and some of the 13 other states voting on Super Tuesday.
Warren’s visit came a week before the Michigan primary, the biggest of six Democratic contests taking place on March 10.
Confrontation between Jackie Lacey’s husband and Black Lives Matter protesters prompts some to reevaluate district attorney vote
At the polling station at the Honor Fraser Gallery in Mid-City, several people said that they had decided to vote for Rachel Rossi on advice from their friends, who had told them that a change was needed in the district attorney’s office.
While walking to the station, 30-year-old Julia Markas said that seeing the video of the confrontation between David Lacey, husband of Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey, and Black Lives Matter protesters had led her to research the other candidates running for district attorney.
“It really did make me investigate where did she [Jackie Lacey] stand on things, who are the other people running against her, because it was a really shocking video,” she said.
After ruling Lacey out, citing criticism that the current district attorney has rarely prosecuted police officers for using deadly force, Markas said she was deciding between George Gascón and Rossi. She applauded Gascón for being the coauthor of Proposition 47, a 2014 criminal justice reform initiative, but was still torn.
“I like the idea of a public defender in there,” she said, referring to Rossi.
Painters masks, pandemic fears and a parish voting center
A line 10 people deep formed outside the El Monte Nativity Church’s Parish Center shortly after noon.
Voters would have to contend with a new electronic voting system, coronavirus fears and a ballot loaded with choices on Super Tuesday.
Despite those issues, the average wait time over an hour period been noon and 1 p.m. was about 10 minutes.
“It was real easy,” said El Monte resident Santiago Hernandez, 81, who added he’s not a “computer whiz.”
The person immediately in front of Hernandez in line wore a painter’s mask to protest herself for germs. Hernandez didn’t see the point.
“If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” said Hernandez of a potential COVID-19 spread. “What can you do?”
Fellow El Monte resident Carolina Mora, 66, entered the voting center with a mask, but her concern wasn’t centered on the COVID-19 disease.
“I have leukemia and the doctor advised me not to leave the house unless I needed to,” she said. “I had to vote and I was hoping it was empty, but it wasn’t.”
Mora cast her vote for Tom Steyer, unaware the California billionaire dropped out of the race last week.
“Oh well, I liked the way he spoke and I wanted him to beat Trump,” Mora said.
Biden wins Alabama
Joe Biden wins North Carolina
VOTER VOICES: ‘He’s pro-immigrant’
In suburban Houston, Lucia Escobar said her daughters, 16 and 24, persuaded her to vote for Bernie Sanders.
Escobar, 47, who works at a shipping company, is originally from Colombia. She has been in the U.S. for 20 years and explained in Spanish that immigration is her top issue. She also thinks Sanders will drive voter turnout among youth.
“He’s pro-immigrant,” she said of Sanders. “The young people will vote for him.”
VOTER VOICES: Voting for Biden ‘would be like putting pause on the progressive agenda’
University of Houston student Erek Jahn has followed the Democratic presidential primary closely.
Jahn, 21, an English major, was considering four candidates initially: former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
O’Rourke dropped out early, but reappeared Monday on the campaign trail to endorse Joe Biden and post online about their visit to Whataburger. That didn’t sway Jahn.
Electing Biden, Jahn said, “would be like putting pause on the progressive agenda.”
Jahn thinks the Obama administration compromised too much on immigration policy. He works two jobs, earning $10.65 an hour, and would like to see the minimum wage raised to $15, as Sanders has suggested. He also likes Sanders’ proposal for universal healthcare, and thinks he’s the best Democrat to drive turnout, “certainly [among] young voters, minority voters.”
“He has a way of galvanizing his base the way [Donald] Trump does that Biden just doesn’t,” Jahn said. “If we’re going to change the system that got us here, we have to go about it differently.”
VOTER VOICES: California voters take notice of changes at the polls
VOTER VOICES: After Buttigieg drops out, the next best choice
Even if she felt a bit bad about it, Sharon Nelms had made up her mind for Pete Buttigieg.
Her nephew worked for Amy Klobuchar’s campaign after all, but still, she told herself, Buttigieg was young and smart and brimming with good ideas. He was the best bet.
But then he dropped out. So on Tuesday, Nelms — a 74-year-old Palmdale resident who used to work in the customer service industry — cast her vote for her next-best-choice candidate: Joe Biden.
“He’s a very nice guy, a nice guy,” Nelms said. But most of all, she thinks he has the best chance of beating Trump.
VOTER VOICES: ‘Democrats are heading in the wrong direction’
Johnny Thai, 80, is adamant that he can only vote for Donald Trump.
“Who else is willing and able to work without taking money from the Treasury. Unemployment is down. He has created more jobs than he can fill. I backed him four years ago — I will always support him,” said the Garden Grove man who worked as a police officer in Vietnam.
Thai is a registered Republican, as are all of his friends, he says, conforming to the traditional Vietnamese American voting bloc that stayed loyal to the GOP. He has three children — who he pushes to support the candidate he supports — and four grandchildren, whose safe future he wants to protect.
“The Democrats are heading in the wrong direction,” he added. “They don’t do what they say they will do. Look at Mr. Trump. He will succeed building that wall.”
Bernie Sanders wins his home state of Vermont
VOTER VOICES: Cheers for voters at the Imperial Courts public housing complex
Any voter who came to cast a ballot at the polling station in the Imperial Courts public housing complex in South Gate was celebrated with a round of applause, either by volunteer Bobbie Thompson on their way in or her fellow volunteers on their way out.
The flow of voters had been steady all morning with no problems to speak of, and that pleased Thompson, 74, who’s lived in the South Central L.A. community for 48 years.
“Yesterday was pretty decent” for early voting “but today it’s off the chain,” Thompson said.
“As the old saying goes, I knew it was gonna be ‘on and crackin’.”
Joe Biden wins Virginia
Tornado doesn’t stop Tennesseans from voting
Shelby Loving did not vote in 2016. But on Tuesday she was determined to cast her ballot — even though her polling station was shut down after a tornado struck her East Nashville neighborhood, destroying homes and businesses and killing more than 20 people across middle Tennessee.
The 27-year-old body piercer had planned to vote early in the morning to beat the rush. But with more than 20 polling stations across the city forced to shut down after the tornadoes, she had to get to a new “super site” several miles away.
She couldn’t drive her car — the streets were blocked by trees limbs and power lines — so she put on her Dr. Martens and picked her way through the rubble.
Back in 2016, Loving never imagined that Donald Trump would win.
“I felt a huge part of the problem when he was elected,” she said. “I told myself that any election after that, local or not, I needed to show up.”
Weaving through broken glass and downed power lines, she found the heart of Five Points cordoned off with yellow police tape.
The tornado had crashed into Boombozz Craft Pizza & Taphouse and ripped a wall off Burger Up and the Soda Parlor.
It tore the roof of Noble’s Kichen & Beer Hall, where she used to work as a server and bartender.
After stopping for a minute to talk to the general manager, who was handing out ribs and brats, she moved on, determined to cast her vote for Bernie Sanders.
She worried that former Vice President Joe Biden was gaining momentum. More people were now supporting him, she thought, not because they agreed with his policies, but because they thought he had a better chance of winning.
If she and her East Nashville neighbors — who skew younger and more liberal than many typical Southerners — didn’t cast votes because of the tornadoes, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign would suffer.
“It’s really just my generation that’s left pulling for Bernie at this point,” she said.
After walking more than a mile, Loving hailed an Uber, which ferried her to the Cleveland Community Center in East Nashville, a super site that was absorbing voters from five closed sites.
It was jam-packed, with a long line of about 300 voters snaked across the gymnasium.
Loving got in line.
“I’m doubling down,” she said. “People who didn’t stick to their guns are why we are where we are.”
VOTER VOICES: Discouraged by Democratic endorsements for Biden
Austin Carr, a 29-year-old bartender in Los Angeles who has been a Bernie Sanders supporter since 2016, said he was discouraged by the news of the new Democratic endorsements of Joe Biden.
“You want to think there’s more candidates to represent my needs,” Carr said outside his polling place at the Elysian Valley Recreation Center after casting his vote for the Vermont senator. “I don’t want Bernie to be the last act. ... If anything were to happen to Bernie, where’s the movement?”
Carr’s issue is inequality, which he feels Sanders speaks to best. He likes Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but worries that “toxic masculinity” would lead some voters not to support her just because she’s a woman.
“I want to believe in [Pete] Buttigieg,” but Carr thought the former South Bend., Ind., mayor’s endorsement of Biden felt like the kind of “bought-and-sold politics” that led him to support Sanders in 2016 in the first place.
“I think a lot of it is wack,” Carr said.
VOTER VOICES: ‘I look for people who have respect for other people’
Walking into an AARP workshop on cellphone safety in Monterey Park, Mariko Ghaninejad says quietly that she’s participating in her first presidential “election experience this week. I’m voting for Sanders because he has a sense of decency,” she added.
“I look for people who have respect for other people. “
The Japanese Iranian resident of East Los Angeles said political spirit is a quality she is trying “to develop. A lot of the issues are really hard for me to understand since I’m new. I just like Sanders because he is ethical.”
Bloomberg criticized for saying ‘Tejas’ instead of ‘Texas’ in Miami stop
Campaigning in Miami’s Little Havana today, former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg offered more fodder for those who complain that leading Democratic presidential candidates engage in “Hispandering” as they seek votes ahead of Super Tuesday.
Bloomberg is heard addressing a gaggle of reporters about Super Tuesday, in video circulating on social media platforms, saying at one point, “In Tejas,” using the Spanish pronunciation for “Texas.”
“What did you say? Tejas?” asks a reporter holding a microphone.
“Tejas. That’s Spanish for Texas,” Bloomberg responded. “You’re in a Cuban neighborhood, so you got to know your audience.”
“Gotcha,” the reporter replies.
The clip quickly gained traction online, with some commentators noting — again — the relative uselessness of using hokie Spanish phrases in campaign spots in the 2020 race.
“Wow hard to see how Bloomberg loses Texas now,” quipped progressive activist Jordan Uhl.
“I feel like Mike really gets me as a Texan after watching this,” tweeted right-wing commentator Jessica Fletcher.
More serious responses highlighted Bloomberg’s big gamble in attracting young voters or voters of color in his personally financed run for the White House, especially in light of his record with stop-and-frisk in New York City.
Artist Andrew J. Padilla tweeted to the “Tejas” remark: “Garbage hispandering from Bloomberg. Saying “Tejas” won’t make us forget how you attacked POC while mayor of NYC.”
VOTER VOICES: Ballots in a basement for Sanders, Warren and Bloomberg
In the relatively quiet basement of the Mary Elizabeth Inn — a nonprofit that provides housing and services for women in need, 20-year-old Academy of Art student Brittany Jarjour took her time as she cast her first-ever vote in a primary election.
For Jarjour, who says her family has struggled with healthcare issues in the past, the choice for the Democratic nominee was without question Bernie Sanders. “He looks out for us,” she said, referring to those who have had to navigate the healthcare system. “And [he] just cares for the youth and what we stand for. ...
“He just seems like such a cute guy as well,” she added.
Jarjour, who said she had been a Sanders fan since 2016 but was too young to vote then, was among a wide range of supporters of the Vermont senator.
Joe Tenenbaum, a 37-year-old sales employee at an e-commerce company, said he has been a longtime Sanders fan despite concerns about his ability to get some of the more ambitious plans passed if he wins the presidency. “I think he just has the most clear, consistent record of voting for what is right,” he said. “Even though he’s more altruistic and maybe some of his policy is less feasible, I think he has the most socially responsible policy.”
Others who turned up at the Mary Elizabeth Inn — which borders San Francisco’s low-income Tenderloin neighborhood and is a few blocks south of some of the city’s most luxurious hotels — were casting their votes for the candidate they felt had the best chance at beating President Trump.
One woman, who is retired and lived in the vicinity of the inn but asked not to be named, voted for Elizabeth Warren, referring to her as “Bernie lite.” “She’s the most sensible choice,” she said. Asked if she would support any other candidate if they won the nomination, she said she’d vote for any candidate running against Trump “even if it’s Mitt Romney.”
Another retiree, Michael Stenburg, also looking to unseat Trump, voted for former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, arguing that the country showed in 2016 that it wasn’t ready to vote for “an intelligent woman” or “a socialist.”“And I think Biden’s been around for too long,” Stenburg said.
Still, each voter said they’d vote for any Democratic nominee, even if it doesn’t end up being their first choice.
Tenenbaum, who ranked Bloomberg as his last choice, said he’d still vote for him over any Republican. “Bloomberg is my favorite Republican,” he said.
VOTER VOICES: Sanders ‘empathizes with our immigrant story’
Mildred Dimas proudly wore her “I Voted” sticker after casting her ballot before her 12:10 p.m. class at East Los Angeles College on Tuesday. The Boyle Heights resident said Bernie Sanders’ policies align closely with what she believes in.
Dimas, 30, said among the Vermont senator’s policies, the ones that stick out to her are his free college tuition plan, his “Medicare for all” plan and his support of the progressive Green New Deal. Sanders’ Medicare for all plan would benefit people such as her friends who are uninsured, like she once was, she said.
She said she’s worried about how the recent endorsements of candidates who abandoned the race — namely Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O’Rourke — could sway the nomination in favor of former Vice President Joe Biden, who is more moderate.
But she’s hopeful Sanders can win in states such as California and Texas, which have large Latino populations. As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, she said she feels like Sanders understands her family’s story because of his own family’s immigrant roots.
“He sees us as human beings,” she said. “He empathizes with our immigrant story.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘He’s going to do good things for our community’
Shawntae Jackson, 30, a resident of the Jordan Downs public housing community near the Watts Towers, took her 2-year-old daughter, Infinity, with her when she voted for former Vice President Joe Biden.
“He’s going to do good things for our community,” Jackson said.
She especially has high hopes that Biden will help improve access to healthcare and increase educational opportunities for young people growing up in low-income neighborhoods such as hers.
Beyond policy, Jackson worries that as the nation grows more diverse, the likelihood of social conflict will increase, especially under a president such as Donald Trump, who she believes inflames racial and cultural tensions. Biden, she says, will cool them down.
“As a country, we need to make better choices about who should be our leader,” Jackson said.
VOTER VOICES: Supporting Sanders once again
Evan Hill supported Bernie Sanders in 2016, and after giving the other 2020 competitors a chance to prove their mettle, he sided again with the Vermont senator.
“He and Warren are probably the only acceptable candidates at this point,” Hill said of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. “I don’t think Joe Biden could beat Trump pretty easily. Bloomberg is just corrupt — absolutely a horrible mess. A plutocrat trying to buy an election.“
Hill, a 28 year-old video game developer from Culver City, pointed to the Democratic debate in Las Vegas two weeks ago as symbolic of the dynamics of the race.
“The most telling thing was the debate where everybody but Bernie Sanders would be okay with a brokered convention deciding it versus the popular vote, which is the most painful irony can say about modern American politics, which is every Democratic candidate but one seems kind of iffy on the whole democracy thing,” he said.
Hill, who cast his vote midday at a Culver City’s Veterans Memorial building, said the recent string of endorsements for former Vice President Biden from fellow moderates caused some alarm.
“It is concerning. They seem to skid in at the last moment, kicking up as much dust possible possible to try and sink the vote for Bernie Sanders.“
Judge rules to extend Tennessee voting after deadly storms
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A judge has ruled that all Tennessee polls must extend Super Tuesday hours in the wake of tornado devastation, a state Democratic Party spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The Tennessee Democratic Party had sued the Davidson County elections commission and Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s office to extend voting hours in the tornado-stricken county.
The suit sought to extend polling hours from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Central time.
VOTER VOICES: ‘Me gusta Bernie’
A smile stretched across Antonieta Espinoza’s face when she spoke about the man she had just voted for.
“El Berrrrnie,” she says, rolling her r’s, giving Sanders’ name a distinctly Spanish pronunciation. “Me gusta Bernie.”
Espinoza, 80, a retired hairdresser from Palmdale, says she likes Sanders’ attitude and believes he will do more to help undocumented people than the other candidates. But she does have one big concern: He’s only two years younger than she is and she worries he could die while in office.
VOTER VOICES: Her last name is Sanders and she’s also in her 70s, but she’s voting for Biden
Voters trickled into the polling station at the Jordan Downs housing project community center near Watts Towers in South L.A. on Tuesday.
As 74-year-old crossing guard Angeline Sanders exited the community center, she was fired up to discuss her vote for former Vice President Joe Biden.
It came down to experience and electability in a field of what she saw as far lesser competitors.
“He’s gonna get the job done — and he’s gonna beat Donald Trump,” Sanders said of Biden.
“None of the rest of them can do it. And it sure isn’t gonna be Bernie Sanders. He’s not even a Democrat. He’s a socialist and he’s not doing anything but lying.”
Angeline Sanders, who lives in the housing complex, may share the Vermont senator’s last name and be a septuagenarian like him, but that’s where the similarities end.
She believes young people who’ve flocked to Sanders and who believe he will fulfill his promises of free college tuition and “Medicare for all” are being misled.
“Who’s gonna pay for it?” Sanders said, raising her voice.
The main reason for choosing Biden, though, was her fear of four more years with President Trump.
When Trump was elected in 2016, Sanders and her neighbors in the housing community, where she’s lived for 51 years, were devastated.
“We cried and we cried,” she said.
“Donald Trump has done tore up the whole world,” Sanders said. “How can people be so stupid?”
It’s time for California Democrats to help their party settle on the strongest candidate to unseat Trump, she said.
Looking at the long list of candidates on the ballot, for her the choice seemed obvious.
VOTER VOICES: At UC Berkeley, a split between Sanders and Warren
BERKELEY — At Sproul Plaza on UC Berkeley’s campus, Cal undergrads Shruthi Chockkalingam, 21, and Leila Hooshyar, 22, were staffing a table in support of Bernie Sanders on Tuesday.
They’d been handing out volunteer-made Bernie T-shirts and fabric patches and fielding questions about last-minute registration and voting locations.
“I think the main split on campus would be between Bernie and Elizabeth Warren, but Bernie support here is a lot stronger,” said Chockkalingam, whose major is math and computer science. “We’ve been working to organize this campus for a lot longer than the Warren team has.”
VOTER VOICES: Trump ‘has done a great job and will continue to do a great job’
Outside a bustling complex in Monterey Park, retiree Jenise Poindexter watched as four people from Voice of America, radio microphones in hand, worked to interview voters as they exited a polling station.
Poindexter, 82, was quite assured in her choice for commander in chief: Trump.
“He has done a great job and will continue to do a great job,” said the registered independent.
“Look at how the economy has been. Look at how our country has been,” added the Monterey Park resident. “I have no doubt that with his business expertise our nation will only get better.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘Cautiously optimistic’ about the new system
All eyes are on L.A. County, where millions are voting on new machines in new centers
California’s presidential primary offered a vigorous test for Los Angeles County’s new election setup Tuesday, as throngs of voters showed up to cast ballots using the county’s first wholly redesigned system in more than half a century.
Whether voters would understand the changes, and whether they would work as promised, made the stakes that much higher in an election already described as historic.
Nor were the challenges confined to Los Angeles. By midday, state elections officials reported that 15 counties had experienced problems with their computer systems connecting to California’s statewide voter database. Although voters could still cast ballots, the problem meant there was no way to update registration records or show that a citizen had voted. To avoid any chance of someone voting more than once, some locations were asking voters to cast provisional ballots — a fail-safe method of voting in which eligibility is confirmed after election day and before the vote is counted.
Los Angeles was not reported to be among counties experiencing that particular problem, though voters said electronic voter database devices were not working in some locations. L.A. elections officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information.
VOTER VOICES: New process took ‘a couple of seconds’
VOTER VOICES: A first-time voter explains
VOTER VOICES: A chance to vote for his ‘long shot’ favorite
VIENNA, Va. — John Waggoner, a retired USA Today journalist and now a writer for AARP, really likes Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The 64-year-old loves her tax policy proposal and was giddy to vote for her this morning. But he is realistic. He knows that Warren is a “long shot.” So, he’s cast ballot today in her favor, knowing he might not get the chance to vote for her in November.
That month, he said, he would support any Democrat to get President Trump out of office.
“I would vote for my mother before I vote for Trump,” he said. “And she’s been dead for over 20 years.”
VOTER VOICES: A vote for Sanders in a red county
Savannah Houdek, 21, dropped off her ballot at an indoor community pool in Roseville, her bright red hair standing out amid the mostly older voters who slowly filtered into the polling place.
Houdek, a student, was in and out in minutes, casting her vote for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“I want people to have healthcare and for people to have access to higher education and for our country to get rid of racist ideals,” she said.
Houdek said many younger voters she talks to support Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but her county as whole is largely Republican.
Placer County, which stretches from the suburbs northeast of Sacramento to the Nevada border, is represented in Congress and the state Legislature by Republicans.
“You see a lot of Trump supporters here,” she said.
A recent Los Angeles Times story chronicled efforts by Democratic groups in Placer County to woo younger voters ahead of the primary.
“There are younger voters here and they are for Bernie and Warren,” Houdek said.
VOTER VOICES: Looking at a candidate’s ‘build, the aura, and for a face you can trust’
Calvin Sun, 65, leaped to respond to a ping-pong volley at Langley Senior Center in Monterey Park on Tuesday. He had just cast his ballot for Joe Biden.
The retired Amway clerk said his selection criteria was simple. “I just look at their build, the aura, and for a face you can trust. I read the Asian and American newspapers. I don’t need to watch any debates. Too much talk,” said the father of three.
Instead, he brings papers to the upbeat recreation room at the heavily trafficked center, where players exchange information about their day and their hobbies. He reads in between games.
“You just know you like a candidate by watching their face,” added the Baldwin Park resident. “I go with instinct.”
VOTER VOICES: Biden ‘has to get the fire in his belly to beat 45’
HERNDON, Va. — Dwight Robinson almost voted for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The 66-year-old retiree liked many of his policies, but he didn’t think Sanders had “the appeal to win against the guy I want to lose.”
Robinson believes President Trump’s behavior and policies are anti-American. That’s why he cast his ballot for Joe Biden, though the retiree says the former vice president has a lot of ground to cover before the general election.
Biden “has to get the fire in his belly to beat 45.”
Photos: Voters head to the polls
VOTER VOICES: ‘On the right side of history’
Just before noon, Philip Young and Rosie, his cattle dog mix, stopped during a brisk stroll to say they were all set on an important task for Tuesday: dropping off Young’s ballot “for Bernie.”
“The other candidates don’t seem as viable, while practically everything that Bernie Sanders has done in his lifetime I agree with,” said Young, 29, born and raised in Monterey Park. The Chinese American described the Vermont senator as “ being on the right side of history” and highlighted his past participation in civil rights protests.
“As I’ve gotten older, I see our country getting involved in more crisis, and Sanders is the person to guide us out,” said the operations manager for an internet company.
Young had good things to say about the new voting system, which he says “makes sense, giving us a lot more flexibility” with our schedules.
VOTER VOICES: On the new voting process
VOTER VOICES: After Pete Buttigieg
HERNDON, Va. — For much of the presidential race, Patricia Thomason was excited to support former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
The Medicaid services facilitator, 54, loved Buttigieg’s youthfulness and military experience. But when he dropped out of the race Sunday night, Thomason was devastated and no longer excited about any particular candidate.
But she is excited about the prospect of removing the president from office: “Trump has to go,” she said.
“He lies, is untrustworthy, unintelligent and has destroyed our country’s standing in the world.”
The Herndon resident said Buttigieg’s endorsement Monday night made her vote today easier. Though she believes Biden can be stubborn to apologize for his mistakes and lets his “politics be more important than people,” she believes he can unite the party and beat Trump in the general election.
VOTER VOICES: Voting for the first ‘president that I’ve actually liked’
Standing outside a vote center a block from the Democratic-controlled statehouse in Sacramento, Charles Yarbrough described President Trump as the first “president that I’ve actually liked.”
The Orangevale resident, who works for the California Secretary of State, voted for Trump in the primary and wants to put him in charge for another four years.
“I just love everything that he’s done,” Yarbrough, 40, said. “I love how he actually talks for what he believes in and stands for and he actually puts his actions where his mouth is.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘He’s not perfect’
In between classes and work, East Los Angeles College student Steven Barraza cast his ballot at his college’s vote center “to get Bernie Sanders nominated.”
“He’s not perfect,” the English student acknowledged, but on progressive issues, like Medicare for all and free college tuition, and pushing against Trump, Sanders seemed the best candidate for the Democratic nomination, he said.
Barraza, 31, has voted in elections since he was 18. He said he was hoping that by the end of the day a Democratic candidate would emerge with a delegate lead to unify the party.
“So instead of fighting each other,” he said, “we can fight Donald Trump.”
Commentator-in-chief expounds on the Democratic race
WASHINGTON — President Trump returned to one of his favorite roles on Super Tuesday: commentator-in-chief.
“A lot’s going to be learned tonight,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House to visit the National Institutes of Health, a lead agency in combating the new coronavirus.
“We’ll see how well Biden does. We’ll see how well Sanders does,” Trump continued, speaking of former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“I would have said two, three days ago, Biden was not looking too good. Now he’s looking better, but a lot is going to be known by a certain time tonight. You tell me the time by, you know, California, we’re a little bit, we’re a little delayed so probably by 9 or 10 o’clock tonight.”
Though Trump continued to boost Sanders, claiming the Democratic establishment is trying to take the nomination from him, he insisted he would be happy to face anyone.
“Whoever it is, I don’t care, I really don’t care. Whoever it is, we will take them on the job we’ve done, we’ve rebuilt the military, we have the strongest economy we’ve ever had all of the things we’ve done. I will take on anybody.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘This was very difficult for me today’
HOUSTON — Gena Walker wanted to vote for Kamala Harris. When the California senator dropped out of the race in December, Walker supported Elizabeth Warren. If she had voted early, as many in Texas did, she would have voted for the Massachusetts senator.
But Walker, 57, a software engineer in suburban Houston, decided to wait for the results of the South Carolina Democratic primary. Afterward, she saw the race as Joe Biden versus Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“I just do not trust Bernie Sanders,” she said, although she said she agreed with many of his policies.
Grudgingly, she voted for Biden, calling the former vice president “the lesser of two evils.”
“This was very difficult for me today,” Walker said after voting.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom votes, but for whom? He won’t say
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom declined to name his presidential pick as he cast his ballot Tuesday morning at the California Museum in downtown Sacramento.
“I felt like we’re at a moment where I was hoping we might find some unity and I think my voice is better served in that space than asserting myself on an endorsement that at the end of the day might not amount to much,” Newsom told reporters.
As one of the state’s most popular Democrats, Newsom’s support would have been a welcome boost to any of the contenders ahead of Super Tuesday.
Newsom originally endorsed Sen. Kamala Harris, a longtime political ally, but he’s refused to publicly support another candidate in the primary since Harris dropped out of the race in early December.
“Look, I think one thing we share in common is we’re the most un-Trump state in the United States of America,” Newsom said. “I want to maintain that cohesiveness and that frame, and I’m very confident that we’re going to have a very robust nominee and Donald Trump’s time in the White House is numbered.”
The governor cast his ballot next to his wife, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who announced her support for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren last week.
VOTER VOICES: Two for Trump but for different reasons
HOUSTON — Terri and Gary Priddy, who used to live in Thousand Oaks, voted at a library in their Houston suburb — both for Trump but for different reasons.
Terri Priddy, 70, a retired registered nurse, is a big fan of the president.
“I like what he does,” she said, specifically mentioning his immigration policies. “He’s done what he said he would do.”
Priddy is a social conservative who says she doesn’t believe in climate change or gender reassignment for youths. Compared with Trump, she said, other Republican presidential candidates “didn’t really offer anything.”
She felt strongly about voting because she worried Republicans in places like Texas would become complacent.
“I’m afraid in the general election they’re not going to turn out,” she said.
Her husband, also 70, is a retired petroleum engineer who describes himself as more of a fiscal conservative verging on libertarian. Priddy doesn’t like Trump’s rhetoric and would like to see him act “more civil.” He would have liked to see a stronger Republican challenger, because he said that might have forced Trump to reconsider his New York tone.
But Priddy still voted for the president because he believed he had delivered on campaign promises. “He’s pretty much checking off all the things he said he would do.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘We need to actually take it to the other extreme’
Ivan DePaz voted for Bernie Sanders on Tuesday, just like he did four years ago, he said.
“I love what he’s done; I love that he stands by what he says, and he’s been doing that since he started,” DePaz, 55, said after voting in Los Feliz.
The talent manager said Sanders might have had issues with consistency on some issues but that his policies on healthcare, immigration, the environment and education were “the pillars of where we stand as a nation and as a generation.”
He said the current political climate required a major course correction: “We need to actually take it to the next level; we need to actually take it to the other extreme so we can balance.”
There was a long line at his vote center, but DePaz praised the new system and said it didn’t take him long to vote.
“There are so many ways to vote right now that you don’t have an excuse not to let your voice be heard.”
VOTER VOICES: Someone to beat Trump
RESTON, Va. — Up until last week, Jon Karcz didn’t know whom he would vote for. But the moderate knew he wanted a candidate who could beat President Trump.
The retired Army veteran and federal employee said that in the late 1990s he consulted with former Communist countries on behalf of the U.S. on building democracies. Karcz, a first-generation immigrant, said he took great pride in the job. “We as the United States have a responsibility to help other populations achieve freedom, as is outlined in the Bill of Rights,” he said.
“But I do not think this is a priority or goal for this administration,” he added, after voting at an elementary school in Reston, Va.
He debated between voting for former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and former Vice President Joe Biden. After Bloomberg’s “bad” performance in the first debate and Biden’s overwhelming win in South Carolina, Karcz chose the former vice president, even though he worries about his age.
“He has the best chance to win in November.”
Keep an eye on what happens in Texas on Super Tuesday
HOUSTON — All last week, as former Vice President Joe Biden labored in South Carolina for his sweeping primary victory, other candidates jumped ahead to mine for delegate gold in a state that will be key to where the 2020 presidential race goes from here: Texas.
Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York, was serving tacos and berries to Houston supporters a few days ago. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts rallied 2,100 in Houston and picked up the endorsement of an important national teachers union leader on Saturday. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont attracted thousands to rallies across the Lone Star State, one of the 14 states voting in the March 3 Super Tuesday primaries.
Texas, which awards the second-largest cache of delegates, 228, has a fluid, competitive race and will be the first big test of Biden’s ability to refute Bloomberg’s claim to be a better alternative for moderate voters who fear a Sanders victory.
VOTER VOICES: ‘I was expecting a line’
Elle Pratt, a personal trainer who just moved from Oakland to Long Beach, said voting Tuesday morning as she walked her dog, Otto, was easy.
She said she thought the tablet she used to make her selections was easy to understand, though she wondered if the technology could be tampered with. She liked not having to stand in line and that she was able to quickly register to vote with her new address.
“I was expecting a line,” Pratt said. “It’s cool to walk in and be done.”
The 26-year-old said she voted for Joe Biden because he seemed the more moderate of the Democratic presidential candidates.
She had written off Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren long ago, when she claimed to have some Native American ancestry. “I don’t want to hear it,” said Pratt, who said her grandfather was part of the Cherokee tribe in Tulsa, Okla.
VOTER VOICES: ‘She can really stand up to Donald Trump’
Austin Trizinsky, 36, cast his ballot early Tuesday morning in Los Feliz.
Trizinsky, who works in TV production, said he voted for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“I like her policies and that she has a plan for everything, and I think she can really stand up to Donald Trump,” he said.
He was less than optimistic about her odds in California. Asked how he thought Warren would fare in the state, he said, “I don’t think that well, unfortunately.”
Cast out by Trump, Jeff Sessions struggles in Alabama to win back a Senate seat
VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. — For a man who was once the most popular politician in Alabama, Jeff Sessions cut a lonely figure as he slipped into a packed room of Republicans this weekend to urge them to help him return to the Senate.
When Sessions, the 73-year-old former senator who more recently was President Trump’s attorney general, arrived at the Vestavia Hills Civic Center for a breakfast hosted by the Jefferson County Republican Party, a few party loyalists shook his hand and exchanged pleasantries. But most barely glanced at Sessions as they sipped coffee and poured Aunt Jemima syrup onto pancakes and bacon stacked onto paper plates.
“I don’t have anything to say to him,” Jimmy Carmack, 67, a beekeeper from Center Point, said with a shrug as he watched Sessions stand awkwardly at the edge of the room making small talk with voters. “He’s had his time and we’re ready for someone else.”
Did you vote at an L.A. County vote center? Share your experience
This is the first major test of L.A. County’s new vote centers is underway now as residents proceed to the polls to vote in California’s presidential primary.
The vote centers are part of a $300-million overhaul to replace the polling places used in previous elections, reducing more than 4,500 locations to fewer than 1,000 but giving voters more flexibility to choose their polling place.
VOTER VOICES: ‘Now I think he is the guy’
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — From the beginning, Frank Anderson has considered himself a Biden man.
The 74-year-old retired hospital administrator in Birmingham, Ala., felt the former vice president presented the most solid choice. But he worried as Joe Biden underperformed in the early states, wondering if he would be able to forge a path to the presidency.
As Anderson began to doubt the former vice president, he could not imagine voting for any of the other candidates: He didn’t think Sen. Bernie Sanders could win. He didn’t trust former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and found himself wondering if Bloomberg had entered the race to help Trump. He thought Pete Buttigieg was talented, but he didn’t think the nation was ready for a gay man in the White House.
After Biden’s strong victory in South Carolina, he felt Biden had a chance.
“Now I think he is the guy,” he said.
VOTER VOICES: She debated Warren vs. Sanders. Here’s who won her vote
Madison Williams, 26, of Los Angeles, got in line at 7:20 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mary in Palms church. She talks about how she decided which Democratic presidential candidate to support.
Texas poll workers don’t show up ... because of coronavirus?
AUSTIN, Texas — Voting got off to a slow start in Texas’ Travis County on Tuesday because many election workers did not show up.
The county clerk’s office said multiple election judges and poll workers were no-shows for Tuesday’s primary election. The office said some workers cited fears of coronavirus as a reason for not showing up Tuesday.
The election office said it began implementing emergency procedures, with elections staff and others employees filling in as poll workers.
Multiple polling places had wait times of 20 minutes or longer, according to the clerk’s office.
A coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. could become the most important issue of the 2020 presidential election, potentially affecting the economy, campaigning and voting.
VOTER VOICES: ‘There are a hundred people in line’
HOUSTON — Jeff Watters and his boyfriend visited two Houston polling places, both with long lines, before waiting an hour and a half to vote.
“There are a hundred people in line and 10 voting machines,” Watters, 35, said afterward as he stood outside the community center where he had voted, the line still snaking out into the parking lot.
Texans can vote early or by mail, but Watters, a probate attorney, said he “wanted to wait until today to see how things would settle out with South Carolina.”
Before the South Carolina primary, the registered Democrat said he favored former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. After Biden won South Carolina on Saturday and Buttigieg dropped out, he decided to vote for Biden.
“He got the momentum out of South Carolina. He has the coalition that can bring people together,” Watters said.
He said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ policy proposals were unrealistic.
“That’s one of Biden’s strong suits: his ability to get things done,” he said.
Bloomberg says a convention fight may be his only shot at presidency
Michael R. Bloomberg is acknowledging that his only path to the Democratic presidential nomination is through a convention fight and has suggested he may not win any states on Super Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters at a field office in Miami, the businessman and former New York mayor said, “I don’t know whether you’re gonna win any” when he was asked which of the 14 states voting Tuesday he believed he could win.
Bloomberg added, “You don’t have to win states, you have to win delegates.” He suggested that no one would get a majority of delegates, and “then you go to a convention, and we’ll see what happens.”
Bloomberg was then asked if he wanted a contested convention and he said, “I don’t think that I can win any other way.”
The billionaire is appearing on the ballot for the first time in the presidential race on Tuesday.
Deadly tornadoes delay start of voting in some Tennessee cities
NASHVILLE — Deadly overnight tornadoes delayed the start of Super Tuesday presidential primary voting in Nashville and some other parts of Tennessee, spurring elections officials to redirect voters from some polling places to alternate locations.
Some polling sites in Nashville’s Davidson County as well as Wilson County were moved, and sites across the two counties were opening an hour late but still closing at the same time, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett announced. Gov Bill Lee said the state had deployed generators to polling stations that had reported that they didn’t have power.
The death toll continued to climb Tuesday from the twisters, which shredded dozens of buildings. One of the tornadoes caused severe damage across downtown Nashville.
“Of course we want people to exercise caution in areas like downtown Nashville where there’s damage in the streets and that sort of thing,” Lee said at a news conference Tuesday. “But we also want folks to exercise their rights and get out there and vote. It’s a very important day for that.”
Nashville Mayor John Cooper said alternate sites were arranged for 15 polling places out of the 169 precincts in Nashville’s combined city-county area.
“The likelihood of you being able to vote regularly at your home precinct is very great,” Cooper said at Tuesday’s news conference.
The disaster has complicated voting in a presidential race reshaped by Joe Biden’s blowout South Carolina win and exits by Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg. Democratic presidential campaigns have continued to make their Super Tuesday case in Tennessee through TV ads and appearances.
The former vice president deployed his wife, Jill Biden, to Tennessee on Sunday for a meet-and-greet in Memphis and a fundraiser in Nashville, then she toured a Nashville middle school Monday morning.
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ wife, Jane Sanders, spent Wednesday making multiple stops in Nashville. Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent actress Ashley Judd to make stops for her in Nashville on Monday. Judd’s scheduled appearances for Election Day were canceled due to the tornadoes.
And billionaire Mike Bloomberg made three stops Friday in Tennessee, speaking in Memphis, Clarksville and Johnson City.
In a state where a Republican holds every major elected office, including seven of the nine congressional seats, the Democratic primary voting base has a history of being more moderate than that of other states.
Even though Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Tom Steyer recently dropped out of contention, they’ll still see their share of votes: More than 169,400 Democratic primary votes in Tennessee were already cast ahead of Tuesday through early and absentee ballots. Early voting began Feb. 12.
VOTER VOICES: ‘I’m not sure about’ Sanders
Andre Magee, 52, responded authoritatively when asked whom he voted for:
“Joe Biden, of course!” said the refinery worker after casting his ballot in Long Beach.
“He was a good vice president, and he worked for [President] Obama. They’ve done a lot of good things together. And we just need to get this president out,” Magee said. Bernie “Sanders is OK, but I just, I’m not sure about him. You know he used to be an independent?”
That said, Magee pledged to vote for Sanders if he became the Democratic nominee.
“The most important thing is to get rid of this crazy president we have,” said the resident of the suburban California Heights neighborhood in Long Beach. “I’m surprised we’re not in so much more trouble than we’re in.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘I think Joe Biden maybe has a better chance than anyone else’
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Yolanda Lampkin was still wrestling with which presidential candidate to vote for as she pulled her black Ford F150 pick-up truck into the parking lot of her polling station on Tuesday.
The 62-year-old travel agent from Birmingham, Ala., was leaning toward Sen. Elizabeth Warren or maybe Sen. Bernie Sanders. She liked what they had to say on healthcare and education.
But on the way to South Hampton Elementary School, she listened to U.S. Sen. Doug Jones on the radio urging people to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden. He argued that Biden would be the best candidate against President Trump.
She switched off her engine and sat in her truck for several minutes, weighing whether her favorite candidates had a path to victory. Above all, she wanted to pick someone who would win the presidency.
Warren had not secured very much support in other states. Sanders, she worried, would be dragged down by the socialist tag.
“OK,” she said she told herself. “I’m going to go with Biden. I think Joe Biden maybe has a better chance than anyone else.”
VOTER VOICES: ‘I like everywhere he’s going’
Jason Jeffries, a 52-year-old schoolteacher, cast his early-voting ballot for Donald Trump, as he did four years ago.
“I like everywhere he’s going, between our trade with China or the new trading deal with Canada and Mexico. And we need something done with our border,” said Jeffries, who lives in Long Beach’s affluent Bixby Knolls neighborhood.
Jeffries said Trump had accomplished what he pledged to do during his 2016 campaign and that he would like to see the president expand his efforts during a second term.
“I need him to go into different countries with our trade, I need him to shore up the border and help us with jobs, and infrastructure,” Jeffries said.
Nervous Democrats rally behind Biden to stop Sanders on Super Tuesday
Joe Biden fastened his grip on the establishment wing of his party Monday as prominent Democrats rallied behind the former vice president in an accelerating effort to thwart Bernie Sanders on the eve of the presidential campaign’s biggest and most consequential day of balloting.
One of Biden’s few remaining center-left rivals, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, quit the race and joined former White House hopeful Beto O’Rourke at a Biden endorsement rally in Dallas, shortly after Pete Buttigieg flew to the city to deliver his support.
“He reminds me of my son Beau,” an emotional Biden said of the 38-year-old former South Bend, Ind., mayor — referring to his son who died at age 46 of a brain tumor. “I know that may not mean much to most people, but to me it’s the highest compliment I can give anyone.”
The appearance of the erstwhile antagonists was a strong sign of Biden’s rapid shift in fortune after a big win in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, which resuscitated his flailing candidacy following dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.
It also underscored the desire of many in the party, panicked at Sanders’ success, to consolidate behind a more moderate alternative, and to do so quickly. Former Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada led a parade of party luminaries and elected officials rushing to announce their backing of Biden ahead of Super Tuesday.
Everything you need to know about California’s 2020 primary election
The California primary election is March 3. Here’s what you need to know.
Vote centers have replaced neighborhood polling places, and the old paper-and-ink system has changed too. In the presidential race, candidates will be awarded delegates based on district-level contests and statewide results. It’s complicated. The candidate field has winnowed. In Los Angeles County and other local races, voters will decide on the district attorney, Proposition 13, L.A. City Council, the LAUSD board and more. The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board has endorsements in many of the races on the ballot.
Who is running for president in 2020?
There are five major candidates competing to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee now that Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer and Pete Buttigieg have dropped out. One prominent Republican is challenging President Trump, but many states aren’t holding a GOP primary. Here’s a look at each candidate hoping to become the 46th president.
Now you can vote anywhere in L.A. County. Find a location
In the March 3 primary, nearly 1,000 new vote centers will replace the precinct polling places used in past L.A. County elections. Angelenos will no longer be confined to voting in their neighborhoods. Explore vote center locations.
Voting is underway in California, the biggest prize in Super Tuesday
Polling sites have opened across California for millions of voters in the biggest Super Tuesday to cast ballots in races for president, Congress and a variety of other offices.
The Democratic presidential race is the top contest for most California voters. Both Democrats and voters with no party affiliation can cast ballots in the party’s presidential primary.
The top contenders include former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. California is one of 14 states holding Democratic presidential primaries, and its trove of 415 delegates up for grabs Tuesday is the biggest.
Polls in California will close at 8 p.m.
At least 3.7 million Californians had already cast ballots by mail by the time polls opened Tuesday morning, including nearly 2.5 million who were eligible to vote in the Democratic primary, according to Political Data, a nonpartisan election data firm.
Here’s where 2020 Democratic candidates stand on 5 issues important to Californians
The Democrats vying to take on President Trump agree on many prescriptions for the country’s problems, including undoing many of Trump’s policies. But on a wide range of issues, their ideas diverge in ways large and small.
“Medicare for all” has been a flashpoint for the Democratic Party’s competing factions, bringing heated exchanges on debate stages and accusations of naivete and foot-dragging. The candidates have also differed to one degree or another on immigration policy, how to tackle climate change and gun violence, and how to solve persistent homelessness.
Follow the links to find out where the eight major Democratic presidential candidates stand on five of the issues important to Californians:
How to know who’s winning on Super Tuesday: Five things to watch
Super Tuesday is upon us — primaries from Maine to California, 14 states in all, distributing more than a third of all the delegates to this summer’s Democratic nominating convention. In some states, notably California, voters have been casting ballots for weeks already.
Here are five key things to watch for as the returns come in:
How much does Joe Biden dominate the South?
In 2016, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ inability to beat Hillary Clinton in Southern states ultimately led to his defeat. Sanders and his aides learned from that experience and put significant effort into wooing African American voters, who make up a large share of the Democratic electorate in the South.
But in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Joe Biden upended those hopes. The former vice president won handily because he took more than 6 in 10 African American voters, according to the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the major television networks.
Voter Voices: ‘Vote blue no matter who’
Charlene Langland slipped off her Bernie Sanders campaign button as she entered the early voting center at California Heights United Methodist Church in Long Beach, wanting to avoid charges of electioneering. But after the 56-year-old cast her ballot for the Vermont senator and left the hall Monday, she pinned it back in place, in hopes that other voters would see it and she could share her views about his candidacy.
“He has been so consistent for 50 years,” Langland said. “He believes that healthcare is a human right, he supports the Green New Deal and cleaning up the planet, and he supports the rights of LGBTQ people, and women and immigrants.”
She said good friends who supporedt other Democratic candidates had posted “inflammatory” and false attacks on Sanders.
“I think everyone’s just really emotional because we all want to beat Trump,” said the solar equipment saleswoman. She says she’ll vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is.
“Vote blue, no matter who.”
Amy Klobuchar ends presidential campaign, endorses Joe Biden
After a disappointing finish in South Carolina, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced Monday she was ending her presidential campaign.
Klobuchar’s exit came just weeks after a surprise third-place showing in the New Hampshire primary, which she hoped would propel her through the rest of the early states and on to Super Tuesday. But she finished in sixth place in both the Nevada caucuses and South Carolina primary.
On Monday night, she endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden.
Californians who already voted for Buttigieg or Steyer grapple with desire for a do-over
There may be plenty of second chances in life, but there are very few when it comes to voting — a bitter pill to swallow for those Californians who voted for any of the presidential candidates who dropped out before Tuesday’s statewide election.
The sudden exit from the race Sunday by Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Ind., sparked some brief interest on social media about the rules governing a possible revote. No doubt similar questions were raised by those who cast early absentee ballots for Tom Steyer, the billionaire climate change activist who left the race Saturday.
The answer, in a word: no. There’s no provision in California election law for a second chance once a ballot has been mailed or cast in person at a polling place or regional vote center.
Winning California’s Democratic presidential primary isn’t as simple as it sounds
Voters in California, like others across the country, have long assumed that only one candidate can win an election. And in most cases, they’re right.
But most presidential primaries work differently — a fact obscured in years past when the race was all but over by the time Californians cast ballots. On March 3, the Democratic presidential campaign will be far from over and the arcane rules for winning in the Golden State will come into play.