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Sanders and Biden hold rallies ahead of 6 upcoming primaries

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The Democratic race narrows to two, and Michigan becomes the next big test.

Fresh off a Super Tuesday that reshaped the entire Democratic field, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders spent the weekend of March 6-7 crisscrossing the map ahead of six more contests on Tuesday, March 10. Michigan, Washington, Missouri, Mississippi, Idaho and North Dakota are all up for grabs, and with the field effectively down to a two-man race, every stop carries outsized weight.

• Michigan offers 125 pledged delegates — the biggest single prize of the night — and the state where Sanders scored his stunning 2016 upset over Hillary Clinton.
• Sanders rallied a large crowd in Detroit on Friday, March 6, leaning on Medicare for All to fire up labor and progressive voters.
• Biden pressed his advantage across Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi while locking down endorsements from former rivals and establishment figures after his blowout win in South Carolina.

The March 10 Map

Tuesday’s slate is the last major cluster of contests before the race turns toward the winner-take-most calendar later in March. Michigan’s 125 delegates dwarf the rest of the field, but Washington isn’t far behind with 89 delegates up for grabs in an all-mail-in ballot state — meaning many voters had already cast ballots before either candidate set foot in the state. Missouri, Mississippi, Idaho and North Dakota round out the night, giving both campaigns a mix of Midwest, Southern and Western terrain to fight over in a single 24-hour stretch.

For Sanders, Michigan is personal. He shocked the political world by beating Clinton there in 2016 despite trailing in nearly every poll, and his campaign has treated the state as a must-win proving ground for the coalition of union workers and young progressives he’s built his candidacy around.

Closing the Gap After Super Tuesday

Biden walked out of Super Tuesday having won 10 of 14 states and seized the delegate lead, a turnaround fueled directly by his commanding victory in South Carolina days earlier. That momentum has since translated into a wave of endorsements from former primary rivals and party heavyweights, exactly the kind of establishment consolidation his campaign was banking on. Democratic figures have increasingly rallied around Biden’s candidacy as the party’s moderate lane collapsed into a single frontrunner.

Sanders, meanwhile, is betting that Detroit-style rallies — built around Medicare for All and an energized progressive base — can slow Biden’s roll the way they did against Clinton four years ago. His campaign has framed Michigan as the state that can reset the narrative after a bruising Super Tuesday. Biden’s team has countered with its own detailed policy pitch, part of a broader push the campaign has laid out in its plan for America.

Michigan alone carries 125 pledged delegates — more than Washington, Missouri, Mississippi, Idaho and North Dakota combined.

Campaigning Under a Health Scare

All of this is playing out as the COVID-19 outbreak spreads across the country. Confirmed U.S. cases had surpassed 200 by March 6, with Washington state alone reporting 13 deaths, putting both campaigns under scrutiny for continuing to hold large public rallies. Neither Sanders nor Biden canceled a scheduled stop.

Sanders’ campaign did make adjustments behind the scenes, deploying extra hand-sanitizing stations at rally venues and shifting Washington state volunteers away from door-to-door canvassing and toward phone-banking instead. Biden’s campaign said it had no immediate plans to change its schedule, telling reporters it was continuing standard operations while following state and federal health guidance.

Washington’s all-mail voting means plenty of ballots are already locked in before Tuesday even arrives, but Michigan is the one both campaigns are treating as the real verdict — the same state Sanders flipped in 2016 and the one Biden now needs to hold if he wants to turn his Super Tuesday lead into something harder to catch.