What has long been obvious is now official.
After several states, Washington, D.C., and Guam finished tallying Democratic primary votes this week, former Vice President Joe Biden has accrued enough delegates to clinch the party's presidential nomination, The Associated Press and CNN report. Biden has been the presumptive nominee since April, when his last remaining competitor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) dropped out of the race, but he's now set to face President Trump in November's general election.
Biden struggled in the primary's early stages, but a dominant performance in South Carolina — buoyed by the state's black voters — helped him rebound. Before Biden's win in the Palmetto State, it looked like Sanders was the favorite for the nomination. But when many of Biden's moderate competitors had dropped out and endorsed him, and after Biden won the majority of delegates on Super Tuesday, it became clear the tides had turned. Sanders stayed in the race for a while, and is still on the ballot in some states so he can amass more delegates to influence the Democratic National Convention, but he too has endorsed Biden for the presidency.
“It was an honor to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded, and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party,” Biden said in a statement Friday. Read more at The Associated Press and CNN.