biden wins two more
biden wins two more

By Gregg Re | Fox News

Joe Biden will easily win the primary contests in Mississippi and Missouri, Fox News projects, building on the former vice president’s momentum from Super Tuesday a week ago.

Biden cruises past Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in both states, making Michigan – where polls close in less than an hour – even more critical to Sanders’ once-surging campaign. Michigan is the biggest delegate prize on the board Tuesday, and a win for Biden there would put him considerably closer to the party’s nomination.

It is too early to project a winner in North Dakota, where polls in the Democratic caucus have just closed. Mississippi and Missouri are worth 36 and 68 delegates, respectively.

Although Biden’s wins in the early contests on so-called “Super Tuesday 2.0” were significant, the former vice president and Sanders were especially keen on proving they have the backing of working-class voters in Michigan, the critical Midwestern battleground state that helped send President Trump in the White House.

The day began inauspiciously with Biden berating a Detroit auto factory worker and calling him “full of sh–“; it could end with the 77-year-old candidate further padding his triple-digit delegate lead after a Super Tuesday rout and blowout victory before that in South Carolina.

In all, 352 delegates are up for grabs on Tuesday, with 125 in Michigan alone. Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in Michigan in 2016, 49.8 percent to 48.3 percent, but the latest polls indicated Sanders trailing Biden there.

Idaho and Washington state are also voting. Polls there will close at 11 p.m. ET.

“You’re the best damn workers in the world,” Biden shouted through a megaphone while touring the Detroit auto plant as workers in hard hats chanted, “Joe! Joe!”

Biden now frequently ticks off the names of six former presidential rivals who have endorsed him just in the past week, saying he is “the candidate that they think can win.” The former vice president has campaigned in recent days with two of them, Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, and appeared with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

WATCH: BIDEN CALLS DETROIT AUTO WORKER ‘FULL OF SH–‘ ON DAY OF MICHIGAN PRIMARY

All three have been mentioned as possible vice presidential picks.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., visits outside a polling location at Warren E. Bow Elementary School in Detroit, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

While rallying at the auto plant, Biden was interrupted repeatedly by protesters angered by Biden’s support for the North American Free Trade Agreement and reluctance to embrace sweeping environmental proposals outlined in the Green New Deal. In a scuffle with demonstrators, Biden senior adviser Symone Sanders was knocked to the ground but was unhurt. Less than a week ago, she tackled a protester who rushed the stage as Biden spoke in California.

Biden unloaded the expletive on the factory worker and seemingly threatened to slap him when he accused Biden of “actively trying to end our Second Amendment right.” That was a reference to Biden’s informal naming of Beto O’Rourke, who has vowed to take all Americans’ AR-15 rifles, to lead his gun-control initiatives.

“Do you need 100 rounds?” Biden asked, after berating the worker. Biden’s official gun control plan reinstates the assault weapons ban and includes a voluntary buyback program for assault weapons, stopping short of a mandatory buyback program that some of his opponents had supported in the primary.

Trump won Michigan by only about 10,000 votes in 2016. That was even closer than Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, which, along with Michigan, are credited with handing the president a narrow Electoral College victory even as Hillary Clinton clinched the popular vote.

Autoworker in Michigan confronts Joe Biden on his stance on gun rights

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pushes back, clarifies his position on the Second Amendment; Peter Doocy reports from Cleveland, Ohio.

Sanders, who added credibility to his insurgent 2016 primary challenge of Clinton with a win in Michigan, has predicted he’ll emerge victorious there on Tuesday. If he doesn’t, though, he might be relegated to the role of simple protest candidate as Biden piles up a wide lead in delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer in Milwaukee.

Although he has rejected notions he could drop out of the race if Tuesday goes badly, Sanders was visiting polling stations in Detroit on Tuesday, scrounging for late-breaking supporters. He’s said he’s now battling the “Democratic establishment” and scoffed at suggestions that so much of the party’s elite supporting his opponent means Biden is more electable.

“In a general election, which candidate can generate the enthusiasm and the excitement and the voter turnout we need?” Sanders asked. “If you want to defeat Trump, which all Democrats do and the majority of independents do and some Republicans do, we are that campaign.”

Some of that voter enthusiasm would need to wait, however, as the Biden and Sanders campaigns canceled planned rallies in Ohio on Tuesday evening amid coronavirus concerns.

Fox News’ Tyler Olson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Gregg Re is a lawyer and editor based in Los Angeles.

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