Biden wins Maine primary, adding to Super Tuesday victories

Former Vice President Joe Biden has won the Maine Democratic presidential primary, scoring another victory over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) after a stellar showing on Super Tuesday.

The Associated Press called the race for Biden on Wednesday at 1:57 p.m. ET. Sanders was favored in forecasts in Maine heading into Super Tuesday, but Biden claimed victory in the Pine Tree State amid a surge in momentum heading into this week’s contests.

Biden led the Vermont senator with 34.1 percent of the vote to Sanders’s 33 percent as of Wednesday afternoon. Sanders won the state with 64 percent in 2016.

The results mean that Biden has won 10 of the 14 states in which voters cast ballots on Super Tuesday, including major victories in Texas and Virginia. 

Sanders won four states, including California, the top prize for delegates on Tuesday, though the exact delegate allocation from the state is not yet known.

Maine will award 24 pledged delegates in the Democratic nominating race.

Like many of the states Biden won Tuesday, the former vice president made little to no investment in ads or campaign infrastructure in Maine. He polled at just 12 percent in a February Colby College survey, behind former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who dropped out before Tuesday evening, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who withdrew Wednesday morning.

Maine, like Minnesota, another state where Biden pulled out an unexpected victory Tuesday, switched from caucuses to primaries between 2016 and 2020.

Sanders’s state director, Benjamin Collings, told the Bangor Daily News that despite the senator’s loss, the increased popularity of policy proposals such as a $15 minimum wage indicate he has “completely changed the Democratic party.”

Zack Budryk contributed.

This report was updated at 2:21 p.m.