Pollster declares Democratic race 'pretty much over' after Joe Biden jumps to jaw-dropping lead in Florida

Joe Biden.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Former Vice President Joe Biden may have just secured his nomination.

When several more states vote and provide clarity in the 2020 Democratic primary race on March 17, Florida, the home of the fourth biggest chunk of delegates in the 2020 Democratic primary race, will be among them. And according to a St. Pete Polls survey of likely Florida Democratic primary voters out Thursday, Biden will likely dominate the state with 61 percent support to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 13.

Biden's backing is a dramatic increase from the 34 percent he received in late February, and seems to draw directly from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other moderate candidates' supporters. Sanders' support in Florida has meanwhile remained relatively flat throughout the race, the poll shows.

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Biden will likely only build on this lead seeing as Bloomberg, who got 14 percent of the vote , dropped out Wednesday and endorsed the former vice president. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) got a small five percent support before dropping out Thursday, leaving only a tiny improvement for Sanders even if all of her voters went to him.

It all prompted Dave Wasserman, the U.S. House editor at Cook Political Report, to tweet that this means "barring a seismic event, this race is pretty much over" and presumably going in Biden's favor.

St. Pete Polls surveyed 1,882 likely Florida Democratic primary voters on March 4 via phone, with a 2.3 percent margin of error.

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.