President Joe Biden convincingly won the Nevada Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday as challengers to the incumbent president failed to gain ground in the race for the Democratic nomination.
Biden’s victory, coupled with an expected win for former President Donald Trump in the GOP South Carolina primary later this month, is leading pundits to predict the two candidates will face off for the second time for the White House.
“I want to thank the voters of Nevada for sending me and Kamala Harris to the White House four years ago and for setting us one step further on that same path again tonight,” the president said in a statement.
Biden captured nearly 90% of the votes, leading The Associated Press to call the race in the president’s favor around 90 minutes after polls closed. It is the second massive win for Biden after he took 96% of the votes in South Carolina earlier this week.
Marianne Williamson placed third in Nevada behind a unique category that allows voters to select “None of These Candidates.” More than twice as many people voted for “none” than for Williamson, a best-selling author and spiritual adviser facing a second-straight defeat as a presidential candidate.
Biden earned all 36 delegates in Nevada to add to the 55 he collected in South Carolina, the first Democrat primary of the season. Biden now has 91 delegates of the 1,968 needed to capture the nomination.
Despite having a clear path to victory in Nevada, the president spent two days campaigning in the state, where he held a fundraiser, a rally, and a meeting with powerful Las Vegas organization, the Culinary Workers Union.
“Wall Street did not build America. The middle class built America. Unions built the middle class. There would be no middle class without the unions,” Biden said to the members before calling Trump a “scab,” a derogatory term for someone who crosses picket lines.
“So I came to say thank you. Not just to say thank you for the support that you’ve given me last time out, but to thank you for having the faith in the union.”
During his campaign stop, Biden criticized Trump’s record on veterans, gun violence, and health care, asking the crowd of listeners to “imagine the nightmare if Trump returned to office.”
