It’s Time To Start Calling Joe Biden The Presumptive Democratic Nominee

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:15 pm

After a string of (more) impressive primary victories on Tuesday night – from Michigan to Mississippi to Missouri – former vice president Joe Biden looks unstoppable in his quest to become the 2020 Democratic nominee for president.

Tuesday’s results will further pad Biden’s delegate lead over Bernie Sanders, but the math for Biden is about to get even more favorable in the coming weeks, particularly on March 17 when voters in Florida, Ohio, Illinois and Arizona will cast their ballots.

Speaking of math, even former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang acknowledged that Biden is the only remaining candidate with a path to the nomination. Citing that reality, Yang officially endorsed Biden on Tuesday night.

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As Biden continues to rack up wins and his delegate lead over Sanders grows, it’s time to start calling the former vice president what he is: the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Voters, not DNC operatives, put Biden on the doorstep of the nomination

In just the span of two weeks, Joe Biden has gone from dead in the water to a front-runner to become the Democratic presidential nominee –  but it’s not because the DNC somehow rigged the election in his favor, as some supporters of Bernie Sanders claim.

In fact, the primary process was set up in a way that benefited Sanders, not Biden.

As CNN’s Harry Enten noted this week, “DNC set up a [primary schedule] that kept Biden’s strongest group from voting in large #s until 4th contest. Most donors kept wallets closed to him. He had a plurality of endorsements but not many til after SC. Oh & a billionaire spent a ton of $ to compete w/ him in moderate lane.”

In other words, before they could even blink, the Biden campaign was buried beneath three losses in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and his team was bleeding cash as his opponents – including Bernie Sanders – were raking it in. All the while, the media narrative was that Biden was flopping yet again.

But voters – not DNC operatives – came to Biden’s rescue. They turned out in big numbers to support his campaign in South Carolina, on Super Tuesday, and again on Tuesday night in six more states across the country.

They are the reason why Joe Biden stands on the doorstep of the Democratic nomination, not some behind-the-scenes establishment force rigging the process against Bernie Sanders.

Looking toward the general election

With the primary contest reaching a point where one candidate – Joe Biden – looks to have an insurmountable delegate lead, most Democratic voters are clearly itching to move on to the general election campaign against Trump.

According to the polling, Democrats have some reason to be optimistic about what lies ahead. Recent data shows Biden with a solid national lead over Trump, with the latest CNN poll giving the former vice president a 10-point edge.

Heck, even Trump’s favorite pollster – Rasmussen Reports – has Biden beating Trump by six percentage points.

But as a majority of the country learned in 2016, it doesn’t matter how many more voters you win nationally if you can’t perform well in the swing states that determine who wins the Electoral College.

On that measure, Biden has been polling well. In fact, recent surveys conducted in rust belt states – Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – show that the former vice president has the edge over Trump.

That goes without mentioning other states that will clearly be in play with Biden as the nominee, like Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and even Texas.

Still, there is no question that this election will be close and bruising. Donald Trump is a man who will not hesitate to take the campaign deeper and deeper into the gutter the closer we get to November.

But if the Democratic Party unites behind the eventual nominee – which they appear to be doing at this very hour – then Donald Trump will be sent packing on Nov. 3.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.