Super Tuesday: Joe Biden surges ahead nationwide with big wins

Polls have been closing in the 14 states and one territory voting on Super Tuesday in the Democratic Party primary to pick a candidate that will run against US President Donald Trump in November's presidential election.

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Early projections indicated it will be a successful night for Joe Biden.

Mr Biden has surged ahead and is projected to win in several states, which include Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Arkansas.

Mr Biden is also projected to secure an upset win in Massachusetts, the home state of Elizabeth Warren, marking a significant loss for her campaign. Early results showed Ms Warren in danger of finishing third in the state.

Progressive candidate Bernie Sanders is slated to win in his home state of Vermont, in addition to Colorado and Utah.

North Carolina, Virginia and Massachusetts would signal big wins for Mr Biden, as they total 300 delegates, dwarfing Mr Sanders' victories.

Billionaire candidate and latecomer to the race Michael Bloomberg, who spent $500 million of his own fortune on campaign advertising has only been projected to win American Samoa. NBC reported that Mr Bloomberg will be reassessing his campaign tomorrow.

Mr Biden, the biggest winner of the night, gave a fired up speech from Los Angeles celebrating his victories, and trying to unify the party. “Our campaign reflects the diversity of this party and this nation and that’s how it should be,” he said. But two “anti dairy” protesters interrupted the speech as Mr Biden was speaking.

BREAKING: Protesters rush the stage towards Joe Biden during #SuperTuesday night speech; they were stopped by people near Biden. Biden is continuing with his speech. pic.twitter.com/0tI9uSj7pQ
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 4, 2020

But Mr Biden’s closest rival Bernie Sanders was nowhere near conceding the race. In a defiant speech from Vermont, Mr Sanders blasted the former Vice President’s record and insisted he was the better candidate to defeat Donald Trump. He criticised Mr Biden on trade, and voting for the Iraq war. "One of us in this race led the opposition to the war in Iraq — you're looking at him. Another candidate voted for the war in Iraq."

The states voting are Alabama, American Samoa, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah. Together, they account for 1,357 delegates, and any candidate is required to reach 1991 delegates to win the nomination.

Voter turnout in Texas was hit by coronavirus fears and power cuts put some California voters in the dark.

Meanwhile, a powerful tornado disrupted voting across stretches of Tennessee. Polling stations in three counties in the state suffered extreme damage from the storm and voters were redirected to cast their ballot at other locations within the state.

A judge extended voting hours in the Nashville area after four Democratic candidates sued to keep Super Tuesday polls open after the tornado damage.

Before Tuesday evening, Mr Sanders lead the delegate count with 56, while Mr Biden was in the second place with 48.

Only a week ago, the former vice president’s campaign appeared to have run out of steam. But he was buoyed by a large victory in the state of South Carolina on Saturday, and star endorsements from his former rivals Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and Beto O'Rourke who dropped out of the race and all endorsed him on Monday.

The Biden campaign has also been boosted after the former vice president claimed key endorsements from the State Senator Tim Kaine, and Governor Terry McCaullife.

Mr Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday night to mock rival Mr Bloomberg for eating doughnuts and licking his fingers on the campaign trail.