Joe Biden was winning the Democratic presidential preference primary in Missouri on Tuesday, March 10 from the first St. Louis city and county absentee vote totals — that is, the city and the suburbs — as well as the tiniest precincts outstate that were first to report to the Secretary of State.
In the end, Biden won decisively with 396,826 votes (60 percent), according to unofficial results. Bernie Sanders, the candidate with the most active rival campaign, received 228,244 votes (35 percent).
In a bigger blow to Sanders’ prospects, Biden also won Michigan, the biggest delegate prize of the night, on March 10.
The enthusiasm gap between Biden and Sanders at St. Louis rallies leading up to the election, on the other hand, was far in Sanders’ favor. Sanders packed the Stifel Theatre on Monday with support from an all-star list of local progressives. Biden spoke for only seven minutes to a smaller and more sedate crowd at Kiener Plaza on Saturday, though he was introduced by the city’s two most powerful black citywide elected officials, Comptroller Darlene Green and aldermanic President Lewis Reed.
Reed told The American on election night he is excited about the race because the African-American vote has been decisive to Biden – the only thing like it that he has seen were the campaigns of Barack Obama. Reed plans to stay active with the campaign, helping Biden in Illinois.
Reed has a message from Biden. “He says if you’ve ever been knocked down or left out like he was in this race, that this is your campaign,” Reed said. “That speaks to a lot of people across this nation.”
On election night, Green told The American that she also expects to continue to serve the Biden campaign “in many ways.”
“I think he is the guy for the White House,” said Green, who served as vice chair of the Missouri Democratic Party from 2011-2016. “He has the right kind of support to win, and I am going to work hard to make sure my voice is heard inside the campaign.”
Though Sanders had the buzz in the city going into the primary and anyone would have expected his rally to be more dynamic, the black Biden supporters who rallied for him on Saturday spoke from the perspective of seasoned, strategic voters.
For Anthony Jones, 27, a sales associate, Biden was the pragmatic primary choice.
“I agree with Bernie on a lot of issues, but at the end of the day it’s about winning,” Jones said. “Biden reaches out to more moderate voters. We’ve got to get Trump out, and Joe Biden is the best candidate to do that. We have to win in November and stop the chaos.”
Sabrina Tyuse, 64, a social work professor at Saint Louis University (SLU), sounded a similar theme.
“Joe Biden exudes stability,” Tyuse said. “He can bring the country together. He is the unity candidate. He is our last, best hope to undo some of the damage Trump has done all around the world, including in the U.S.”
Myron Bumpus, 60, a freelance photographer, noted that Biden had served as vice president to President Barack Obama and also stressed his electability.
“Somebody’s got to get that doggone Trump out of the office, and he’s the best candidate to do it,” Bumpus said.
Melanie Galvin, 65, who works in information technology, also cited the Obama connection while speaking in more detail about policy.
“Trump pulled out of the Paris climate change accord — that is a disaster,” Galvin said. “We don’t live in this world alone.”
Indeed, when Biden finally spoke on Saturday — an hour and a half later than scheduled — he said the U.S. would rejoin the Paris Agreement on his first day in office.
Galvin cited other issues — protecting national parks, extending access to health care — that Sanders also would support. But she is more confident that Biden would be effective. “Bernie is promising all these things he can’t deliver,” Galvin said.
Juliet Ezepue, 37, a professor of global health at SLU, cited Biden’s “breadth and experience” in accomplishing things. Her own experience as a global health researcher and world traveler made her especially determined to vote Trump out of office.
“When I travel now and say I am from America, the first thing that comes to mind is the president and they shake their head,” Ezepue said. “They say he acts like a dictator. Totalitarianism is what is happening in this country, when we’re supposed to be the beacon of hope and freedom. Biden can get us back there.”
Sanders clearly has the edge among all younger voters, including younger black voters. But James Turner, 18, a student at the University of Missouri St. Louis studying political science, cast the first vote of his life (absentee) for Biden the day before the tally. He said he believes that Biden can accomplish things because, he said, his family has experienced him do so already in the Obama administration.
“He had a big role in passing the stimulus package and the revival of the auto industry,” Turner said. “Obama relied on him a lot when my family saw a lot of growth. Those results excite me. It’s not just people talking.”
When Biden finally spoke at the rally on Saturday, he hit just about every one of these themes his supporters came to hear. He said he would unify the Democratic Party, beat Donald Trump, then unify the country. As president, he said, he would reinvest in public education, extend access to health care and repair our global alliances.
Green said that is the message she has been pushing inside the campaign.
“As a person on the inside, I am encouraging unity,” Green told The American. “It’s time to unite. We need all the blue we can get as we go into November. We’ve got to fight to win our country back. We’re fighting for our democracy.”
