While Joe Biden won more states, as many as eight of the 14, a Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., victory in the biggest Super Tuesday prize of California helped him stem a tide.
"We are not only taking on the corporate establishment, we are taking on the political establishment," Sanders told his campaign rally in Essex Junction, Vermont, pointing to Biden, who won some states he did not even campaign in, capitalizing on momentum and the support from being former President Barack Obama's vice president for eight years.
Among Sanders' Super Tuesday primary victories were his home state of Vermont, Colorado, and the state of Utah, which set a record for turnout in a presidential primary.
Sanders and Biden were locked in a very close battle in the night's second-best test in Texas.
"No matter what happens, if this campaign – and I don't know what will happen – but if it comes out to be a campaign in which we have one candidate who is standing up for the working class and the middle class, we're going to win that election," Sanders told his rally.
"And if we have another candidate who has received contributions from at least 60 billionaires, we're going to win that election."
Winning California on a night he was seeking to blunt the momentum of suddenly surging Biden gives Sanders the largest share of the state's 400 delegates.
It remains unclear how many delegates Sanders will claim from California, given the state's complicated process for awarding them will not be sorted out for days as it continues to count late arriving mail-in ballots.
In early returns, Sanders led with 27% of the vote. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg was second with 19% while Biden was third with 17%. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was fourth with 11%.
"If there is another candidate in the race who is spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, we're going to tell him, 'in America, you cannot buy elections," Sanders told his rally well before being declared a winner in California.
Sanders was referring to Bloomberg, who had a disappointing night and was flying back to New York to reassess his campaign.
CNN reporter sources say, if Bloomberg were to dropout, he would not spend to support a Sanders campaign – suggesting he might back Biden in the remaining two-candidate race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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