The US Democratic Primaries of 2020-why there is still all to play for

The USA's "Super Tuesday" in terms of 2020 Presidential primaries proved to be a politically bruising one for the contenders for the Democratic nomination in this year's election for President of the United States of America. At this time of writing, with eight months to go before the actual election itself, the Democratic primaries are now down to only three contenders: Joe Biden, former Vice President of the USA, radical Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg having now dropped out of the race.

 Although Mr Biden is ahead of Mr Sanders in terms of delegate numbers, and has received the endorsement of Mr Bloomberg, and also Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttgieg (two other significant contenders who have also dropped out), it is by no means over just yet-and this is why:

 1. Mr Biden is only ahead by 65 delegates-596 to Mr Sanders' 531. Furthermore, supporters of Mrs Warren are more likely to back Mr Sanders than Mr Biden, especially since in 2016 Hillary Clinton lost many of the working-class voters tired of metropolitan Democrats who failed to listen to them during the Great Recession, particularly in formerly solid Democratic states such as Minnesota. It is this reason why Mr Sanders only won 9 fewer delegates than Mr Biden in Texas, one of the most conservative states in the USA by any standards, and was able to win the Utah contest. And a 65 delegate margin is nothing when more than two-thirds of delegates have yet to vote in these primaries.

 2. The key states for candidates to win this year are not the old "swing states". The old rust belt (Michigan, Indiana etc.) is now the important political battleground in the USA, and Democrats living in these states will be more sympathetic to the more social-democratic and progressive (by European standards, not American standards!) economic platform of Mr Sanders. Mr Biden in practice represents the same strand of neoliberal metropolitan Democrats as Mrs Clinton, which will do him no favours against Donald Trump even if it helps him retain growing middle-class voter pockets in the Deep South and Virginia.

 3. Mr Sanders is clearly better at campaign fundraising. Money talks more in US poliitcs than in the politics of any democratic nation (even the United Kingdom), and at all levels. So far Mr Sanders has raised nearly twice as much in campaign contributions as Mr Biden. And he has managed the feat of raising over $100 million in his campaign so far despite not having a privileged background or a billion-dollar corporation of his own.

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