Joe Biden Archives - Missourinet

Biden sweeps Sanders in Missouri Democratic primary (AUDIO)

March 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Biden sweeps Sanders in Missouri Democratic primary

The results are in: presidential candidate Joe Biden has won the Democratic presidential preference primary election by a landslide. Missouri Secretary of State’s Office has collected results from 100% of the state’s voting precincts.

Biden ended the night with 60% of the vote, compared to about 35% support for Bernie Sanders.

On the Republican side, the race was not competitive. President Donald Trump took about 97% of the vote.

Precincts reported about 660,000 Democrats voted today compared to about 309,000 Republicans.

LISTEN TO BIDEN VICTORY SPEECH (10:41)

Half of Missouri’s precincts report results of Presidential Preference Primary

March 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden

The Missouri Secretary of State’s Office has election results from about 50% of the state’s voting precincts. Missouri is one of five states holding presidential preference primaries today.

On the Democratic side, presidential hopeful Joe Biden has been leading tonight. He holds about 59% of the vote. Bernie Sanders trails with about 33%.

As for Republicans, President Donald Trump has easily dominated with about 97% of the vote. In the 2016 General Election, Trump won Missouri by 19 points.

Precincts report so far that about 286,000 Democrats have voted today compared to about 195,000 Republicans.

Early results of Missouri Presidential Preference Primary Election

March 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Secretary of State’s Office has election results from about 30% of the state’s voting precincts. Missouri is one of five states holding presidential primaries today.

Mary Espinoza joins the crowd in Kansas City that rallied for Biden days before the primary

On the Democratic side, presidential hopefuls Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are in a battle for the state’s delegates. Biden leads in the polls with 59% of the vote. About 31% support Sanders.

Biden was in Kansas City and St. Louis on Saturday rallying supporters ahead of today’s election. His wife, Jill, visited Columbia, Kansas City and St. Louis on Monday.

As for Sanders, he made a stop in downtown St. Louis on Monday. Sanders relied on an army of canvassers throughout the state.

On the Republican side, President Donald Trump has blown all the other candidates out of the water, as expected. He has about 97% of the vote.

(AUDIO) Political scientist on presidential primary: “Missouri matters this time”

March 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

For the first time in several years, Northwest Missouri State University political scientist Dan Smith says the state’s presidential preference primary matters. About 40% of Missouri voters are expected to head to the polls today to choose who they want to be president later this year. Smith says Super Tuesday results last week created a close race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination – putting Missouri in a unique position to be relevant nationally.

Professor Dan Smith (Photo courtesy of NWMSU)

“I’m pretty confident in saying Missouri matters this year,” he says. “We didn’t know it was going to matter two weeks ago. It’s very much undecided on the Democratic side and that means a lot as far as what the campaign is going to look like going forward. Because of Super Tuesday changing the race but making it now a two-person race, Missouri matters. We didn’t matter four years ago. We didn’t matter in a lot of these primaries because we’re after Super Tuesday.”

But after Super Tuesday, he says Sanders and Biden are not separated by many votes or delegates. He’s not sure which one will win the Democratic nomination in Missouri.

“We may get more attention than, I don’t think we’re going to be an afterthought because there’s only so much going on. And in some ways, we may get more attention than we would have gotten on Super Tuesday,” he says.

Smith says Missouri’s results today will matter more than in the General Election because today’s outcome could change the national results in November. Smith says President Trump is expected to win comfortably in Missouri today and in November.

“The question is, is turnout in the Democratic areas. I’ll say, this is true nationally, it’s very true in Missouri as well. Republican voters are more reliable, more consistent, more likely to vote. But there are more Democrats,” he says. “That’s true nationally. In Missouri, that’s not necessarily true. But if the Democrats turnout in large numbers, it’s relatively close. In 2016, turnout in Kansas City and St. Louis was not very good. In the suburbs, it was not very good. So Trump won essentially a landslide. If Democrats turnout in large numbers, it will be closer – not enough to flip the state. I don’t think there’s that much risk to Trump or the Republicans holding Missouri. But, it could be competitive enough that he has to campaign in the state if Democratic turnout is high. What we saw from Super Tuesday is there were some surprisingly high numbers.

For example, Smith cites Fairfax County in Virginia, where 100,000 more people voted in the Democratic primary last week than in 2016.

“That’s staggering numbers and they weren’t Sanders people. They were Biden people. He won the state by 30 points. That’s the kind of, if you will, enthusiasm or turnout numbers that we’re seeing in a lot of the states in the primaries,” he says. “That speaks to what we might be seeing in the fall with levels of turnout.”

Another reason why Missouri matters? The level of division at the Democratic National Convention.

“If Biden runs the table in the next couple of weeks, then it increases the likelihood that they come to some kind of compromise. If Biden becomes inevitable, if he has enough delegates when he gets to the Convention to win, then the Sanders people can’t contest it,” says Smith.

Today’s polls are open statewide from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

To listen to all of Smith’s remarks, click below.

Sanders rallies supporters in St. Louis before Tuesday’s presidential primary

March 9, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders made his way to St. Louis today to tell Missouri voters why they should pick him in tomorrow’s presidential preference primary. Sanders and fellow Democrat Joe Biden are the two remaining viable party candidates trying to gather the most delegates in Tuesday’s election.

Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders makes remarks during a campaign stop at Affton High School in Affton, Missouri on March 13, 2016. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

During his appearance at the Stifel Theatre in downtown St. Louis, Sanders spoke for about 45 minutes and was full of promises. He spent several minutes discussing better pay for workers and laid it on thick about taxing America’s wealthiest at a higher rate. He pledged to boost the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

“Here in Missouri and my own state of Vermont, you’ve got a lot of working people working two or three jobs. You’ve got workers who are worried that they can’t afford to send their kids to college,” says Sanders. “You’ve got half of the older workers in America, people 55 or older, you know how much they have in the bank saved for retirement? Nothing! Now think about it – you’re a 60-year-old worker in St. Louis or Kansas City, you worked your whole life and you’ve got nothing in the bank. Maybe you’ll have $15,000 in social security a year, if they don’t cut it.”

He discussed healthcare for all Americans and bashed companies for alleged price gouging of healthcare and medication costs. Sanders vowed to make a coronavirus vaccine free under his administration.

Other pledges he made were to rebuild America’s “crumbling” infrastructure, make public colleges and universities tuition-free and triple funding for the country’s low-income Title I schools.

“We’ve got school buildings all across this country that are crumbling,” says Sanders. “Kids can’t even drink the water in some school buildings. We know that there is nothing more important than educating our kids for the future of this country. What’s important is not giving tax breaks to billionaires is to making sure that teachers get adequate compensation. Instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires and spending more than the next eleven countries on the military, we will pay our teachers at least $60,000 a year.”

Sanders briefly hit on topics about gun violence, fixing America’s “broken” immigration and criminal justice systems and tackling the war on drugs. He wants to put an end to private companies detaining people.

Sanders also took some jabs at Biden. He says the former vice president supported the War in Iraq and the 2008 bailout of Wall Street.

“Joe voted for disastrous trade agreements which have been horrific for the Midwest – agreements like NAFTA and PNTR with China. I helped to lead the effort against those terrible trade agreements. Over the years, for a variety of reasons, Joe Biden has been on the floor of the U.S. Senate talking about the need to cut social security benefits. I have been leading the fight to expand social security benefits,” says Sanders.

President Donald Trump is expected to overwhelmingly win the Republican vote in tomorrow’s election.

Polls will be open statewide from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

To hear Sanders’ entire St. Louis speech, click below.

Joe Biden holds rallies in STL and KC Saturday (AUDIO)

March 8, 2020 By Ashley Byrd

Presidential candidate Joe Biden turned his attention to Missouri Saturday, holding rallies in the state’s two largest cities, appealing to voters in person two days before Bernie Sanders arrives in St. Louis.

The party primaries are Tuesday in Missouri and this is the first featuring just two major opponents vying for the delegate lead.

At his appearance in Kansas City late Saturday afternoon, Biden primarily focused on his own past and President Trump.

He referenced his opponent indirectly, telling the crowd of between one and two thousand he was the positive campaign alternative, though he stumbled over the past in making the point.

“You want a nominee who will bring this party together, who will run a progressive, positive campaign and turn, turn this primary from a campaign that’s about negative attacks into one about what we’re for. Because we cannot get reelected, cannot win this reelection, excuse me, we can only reelect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here,” Biden said.

However, he lasered in his message when a few hecklers began shouting in support of the proposed Homes Guarantee by the Chicago-based People’s Action organization. Sanders has spoken in support of the plan to ensure housing for every citizen.

The protesters would not stop yelling when he addressed them.

“If you listen I’ll tell you. This is not a Trump rally, OK?” He countered. “You have reason to be upset. Would you be willing, the three of you, to talk to me after this is over? Because I am going to make sure you are not evicted when I am the president of the United States of America, you can’t be!”

The prevailing message in his 14-minute speech was unity:

“I believe we’ve been delivered to a moment where we’re in a position not only to defeat Donald Trump, where we’ll have an opportunity if we think big enough and bold enough to build a future this nation needs and deserves.”

LISTEN TO ENTIRE SPEECH (14:32)

Missouri Democratic Party cancels Sunday’s presidential candidate forum in KC

March 4, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Democratic Party has canceled Sunday’s presidential forum in Kansas City. In a statement today from the party, it says the Democratic presidential candidate field has narrowed significantly, with a possibility that it will continue to narrow even further in the coming days. The party says there are now too few candidates to make the “Show-Me Showdown” event viable.

Missouri Democratic Party cancels Sunday’s presidential candidate forum in KC

“Instead, we will welcome the remaining candidates to Missouri in the days ahead in preparation for the March 10 Primary,” the press release says.

Left in the race, as of now, include Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Tulsi Gabbard.

A press release from Biden’s campaign says the former vice president will be in Kansas City and St. Louis on Saturday. Sanders’s campaign says the Vermont U.S. Senator opened four offices in Missouri over the weekend – in Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield and Columbia.

Missouri’s presidential preference primary is on Tuesday. Even though they’re no longer in the race, Missouri’s ballot will still include Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer, Cory Booker, Pete Buttgieg, Andrew Yang, Julian Castro, Mike Bloomberg and others.