Presidential primary in Washington too close to call

SEATTLE — Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders were in a dead heat on election night in Washington’s presidential primary, while Biden’s resurgent campaign looked poised to capture most of the six primaries held across the country Tuesday.

Sanders led Biden with 32.7 percent of the vote to 32.6 percent in early returns Tuesday, with the two candidates separated by fewer than 1,500 votes out of more than 1 million counted.

Biden was the front-runner in Clark County with 35.2 percent of the vote as of 8:08 p.m. Tuesday. Sanders had 31.7 percent with 36.82 percent of voter ballots recorded. The next batch of election results from the county will be released about 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Donald Trump won the Republican primary in the state. The only candidate on the ballot, he received 98.52 percent of the vote in Washington and 98.46 percent of the vote in Clark County.

Despite a nearly unprecedented public health crisis in western Washington that kept both septuagenarian candidates from campaigning here leading up to the primary, turnout appeared on pace to set a new state record for a presidential primary, according to Secretary of State Kim Wyman.

Washington represented the second-biggest state voting Tuesday. Biden won the largest, Michigan, as well as Mississippi and Missouri, while North Dakota and Idaho remained too close to call.

Washington’s vote-by-mail system enabled high turnout, even as public health officials have urged “social distancing” to combat the coronavirus epidemic, thousands of employees have been told to work from home and events across the region have been canceled or postponed.

Not only did both Biden and Sanders stay away from Washington, but their campaigns canceled official watch parties Tuesday night, wary of convening large groups of people in the midst of an outbreak. Both candidates also canceled election night rallies in Ohio, citing the advice of public health officials.

“Although there’s a way to go, it looks like we’re going to have another good night,” Biden said, from Philadelphia, shortly before Washington polls closed. “This election is one that has character on the ballot.”

Sanders did not speak publicly Tuesday night.

Biden, Sanders and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard are the only Democratic candidates remaining in the race, but 13 candidates remained on Washington ballots. And hundreds of thousands of ballots were returned before candidates began dropping out last week.

The virtual tie comes despite the devoted following that Sanders has nurtured here since his 2016 presidential run, and despite a state-level campaign that was largely invisible in Washington.

Four years ago, Sanders waltzed to victory in Washington’s Democratic caucuses, with nearly 73 percent of the vote. He’d go on to narrowly lose Washington’s meaningless “beauty contest” Democratic primary that year. Since then, he has returned a couple times. He spoke to more than 900 in Seattle, on a nationwide book tour, shortly after the 2016 elections. He spoke to more than 17,000 at the Tacoma Dome last month.

And he built a campaign operation here, running television ads in the last couple weeks, hiring a half-dozen paid staff in Washington and harnessing thousands of volunteers to knock on doors and phone bank in support of his campaign for “Medicare for All,” free public college and a Green New Deal. He earned the endorsement of a diverse cohort of progressive local legislators: Rep. Pramila Jayapal; Seattle City Councilmembers Kshama Sawant, M. Lorena Gonzalez and Teresa Mosqueda; state Sen. Joe Nguyen and King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay.

Biden had virtually no campaign infrastructure in Washington, relying instead on national media and his near universal name recognition to fuel his campaign. He ran no TV ads and had essentially no ground game or volunteer organization in Washington. His recent visits to Washington have been exclusively for private fundraisers, with no public appearances. He garnered his own slate of Washington endorsers — who tended to be older than Sanders’ — including Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, King County Councilmember Joe McDermott and former Govs. Christine Gregoire and Gary Locke.

Polls, just within the past couple weeks, have seemed to indicate a surge toward Biden. A Crosscut/Elway poll from late February had Sanders leading with a modest plurality of 21 percent. Biden was in fifth, with just 10 percent. But a King 5 poll from last week showed a veritable dead heat, with Biden at 36 percent and Sanders at 35 percent. And a third poll, from the progressive group Data For Progress published Saturday, showed Biden at 47 percent and Sanders at 44 percent.

Sanders may have benefited from Washington’s all-mail voting, which let thousands of voters cast their ballots when Biden’s campaign still looked tenuous. Around 450,000 voters returned their ballots on or before Biden’s runaway victory in the March 1 South Carolina primary, which fundamentally altered the course of the race. Prior to South Carolina, Sanders had won the most votes in the first three contests, emerging as the Democratic favorite.

But, following South Carolina, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped their campaigns and endorsed Biden. That burst of momentum helped him win 10 of 14 states on Super Tuesday last week, catapulting himself into the front-runner’s spot. He’s since earned the endorsement of more erstwhile presidential competitors: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, California Sen. Kamala Harris, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.