Biden wins Michigan primary, denying Sanders a state repeat
David Eggert | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 8 months AGO
Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., Sunday, March 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Former Vice President Joe Biden hugs U.S. Sen. Cory Booker before speaking at a campaign stop on Monday, March 9, 2020 at Berston Field House in Flint, Mich. Biden is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. Booker endorsed Biden earlier Monday. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)
Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign stop on Monday, March 9, 2020 at Berston Field House in Flint, Mich. Biden is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)
Southfield resident David Grossman rolls up an American flag at the second of four stops after a campaign speech for former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday, March 9, 2020 at Berston Field House in Flint. Biden is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rev. Jesse Jackson wave to the crowd at a rally for Sanders at Calder Plaza in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Sunday, March 8, 2020. Michigan's presidential primary is Tuesday. (Anntaninna Biondo/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)
Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., Sunday, March 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., Sunday, March 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
A pair of young girls help their mother submit her ballot at Haskell Community Center in Flint, Mich., Tuesday, March 10, 2020. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)
Dazarine Taylor, left, votes while Mar'Jani Walker, 9, third right, and Maya Walker, 4, watch their mother Terria Dupree cast her ballot at Haskell Community Center in Flint, Mich., Tuesday, March 10, 2020. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)
People cast their ballot at Haskell Community Center in Flint, Mich., Tuesday, March 10, 2020. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)
Jill Biden, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, bumps elbows with reporters as she says farewell during a campaign visit at The Ferris Wheel in downtown Flint, Mich., Tuesday, March 10, 2020. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)
Voters leave a polling location at Bow Elementary in Detroit, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Voters arrive with masks in light of the coronavirus COVID-19 health concern at Warren E. Bow Elementary School in Detroit, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Residents vote Tuesday, March 10, 2020, in the Michigan presidential primary at the John & Dede Howard Ice Arena in St. Joseph, Mich.(Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)
Bottles of hand sanitizer are made available to voters and election workers Tuesday, March 10, 2020, as residents vote in the Michigan presidential primary at the John & Dede Howard Ice Arena in St. Joseph, Mich.(Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)
A resident leaves the John & Dede Howard Ice Arena, in St. Joseph, Mich., after voting Tuesday, March 10, 2020, in the Michigan presidential primary.(Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A resurgent Joe Biden continued his momentum Tuesday by winning Michigan’s Democratic primary, denying Bernie Sanders’ attempt to rekindle his presidential campaign in what will be a presidential battleground in November.
The primary was the largest delegate prize in this week’s slate of contests, which came one week after Biden’s big Super Tuesday wins winnowed the field. Michigan is part of the “blue wall” that flipped to Donald Trump in 2016, and Sanders campaigned heavily here in the closing days in hopes of repeating his primary victory four years ago.
But voters backed Biden, the former vice president who pointed to the auto bailout under President Barack Obama and pledged to expand health coverage.
Voters enjoyed expanded rights in Michigan's first major election since the approval of a 2018 constitutional amendment that has resulted in a surge of early voting, which began in late January. People who now can cast an absentee ballot without needing an excuse took advantage, submitting 804,000 through Monday — compared with 447,000 at the same point in 2016 when there was a competitive Republican primary.
The swell of absentee ballots, combined with so many Democratic candidates dropping out — especially since South Carolina and Super Tuesday — led to spikes in the number of voters scratching their ballots and submitting a new one. More than 36,000 ballots were “spoiled,” an eight-fold increase over 2016.
The trend is thought to benefit Biden as the party's more moderate wing consolidates around him. Many states do not allow such do-overs.
Michigan's influence has shown from candidates' visits in the closing days.
Sanders, a senator from Vermont, urged large crowds to “think big” and embrace his plans to to cancel student debt and guarantee health care for all.
“We are capable of making sweeping change if we have the courage to do it,” he said in Ann Arbor.
Sanders criticized the former vice president's record on trade, saying his support for the North American Free Trade Agreement more than 25 years ago would give Trump an edge in battleground Michigan in November.
Biden was joined on the trail by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer along with Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris — two former rivals for the nomination.
Biden touted “Obamacare” and said it should be expanded with a Medicare-like “public option," not scrapped with a single-payer system that would supplant private insurance.
“I'm going to stand firm against anyone who tries to tear down the progress and start all over again,” Biden said in Grand Rapids. “Now Sen. Sanders is a good man. His Medicare-for-all push would be a long and expensive slog, if he can get it done at all.”
One voter who backed Biden, Russ Ming, 43, said he did not believe Sanders would match up well with Trump.
“He’s a more moderate candidate than Sanders," said the mortgage banker from West Bloomfield in suburban Detroit. “I think it’s very important that we beat Trump, and Biden is the best to do it. My only goal is to remove the current president from office and install anybody else.”
Ronald Childs, 55, of Detroit, also voted for Biden, whom he said is an advocate of voting rights and of women and LGBTQ rights. He said Biden has a good foreign policy record and “the ability to work across the aisle” with Republicans to get things done.
Larisa Leveck, 24, said she voted absentee for Sanders on Monday in the small town of Ovid north of Lansing.
“He's the only one who's got the platforms that I need,” she said, citing his stances on climate change, health care, money in politics, and making public universities and colleges free.
Mark Brewer, a former longtime chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said he expects higher turnout on the Democratic side than four years ago.
This is the first statewide contest in which people can register to vote at any time without a deadline, including on Election Day. Clerks in college towns saw lines on Monday and prepared for more students to show on Tuesday.
The state has said results will likely come later than usual because of the additional absentee ballots and factors such as same-day registrations.
“A lot could be riding on what happens Tuesday in Michigan," Brewer said. "If Sanders wins again, that could recast the race yet again. Then he can say, ‘I won a battleground state, a state that’s going to be key to the election.’ If Biden wins, he can say the same thing.”
Ned Herman of St. Clair Shores is a Trump supporter. But he said he took a Democratic ballot and voted for Sanders because he fears Biden would be a tough opponent in November.
“The only word I can say is sabotage,” Herman, 49, said with a grin.
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Associated Press writer Corey Williams contributed from Detroit.
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Associated Press writer Corey Williams contributed from Detroit.