Sanders wins California; Biden surges nationwide

Sanders wins California; Biden surges nationwide

Bernie Sanders lost some states, but won delegate-rich California. Photo: AP

Bernie Sanders seized victory in Super Tuesday’s biggest prize, California, while a resurgent Joe Biden scored wins in the upper Midwest and African American strongholds in the South, in a dramatic offensive.



Elizabeth Warren had yet to post any early wins and lost her home state of Massachusetts to Biden in a devastating defeat.



Sanders, a Vermont senator, opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner. He claimed decisive victories in his home state of Vermont, Utah, and Colorado.



Yet Biden scored wins in Warren's native Oklahoma and a swath of Southern states including Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas signalled he was cementing his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats’ establishment wing.



In a sign of his strength across the country, Biden also won Minnesota, a state Sanders had hoped to put in his column.



In a defiant speech, 78-year-old Sanders tore into Trump, calling him "the most dangerous president in the history of this country". But he also tore into Biden for having voted in favour of the invasion of Iraq and painting him as tarnished by billionaire contributors.



"We're taking on the political establishment," he said. "You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics."



But for Biden, 77, the indications were that he was on for a big night in his bid to bring American politics back to the centre after four years of Trump's rightwing populism.



"We are very much alive," he told a crowd in Los Angeles. "Make no mistake about it, this campaign will send Donald Trump packing."



A key takeaway from Biden's lengthening list of wins was the strong support for the former vice president of Barack Obama from African Americans – a vital piece in any Democratic presidential candidate's coalition.



Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, 78, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren were the other big names on the ballot.



But despite spending record amounts of his own money on advertising, billionaire media entrepreneur Bloomberg appeared to be headed for an ugly night – despite a consolation win in tiny American Samoa in the Pacific.



The 14 nominating contests across the country gave the dwindling field of Democratic hopefuls a giant potential haul of delegates in their marathon struggle to win the nomination – and begin campaigning in earnest against Trump.



Many in the Democratic Party are desperate to stop Sanders' strong push to win that delegate race, saying the senator will be destroyed in a general election where Trump has signaled he will brand him a socialist bent on ending the American way of life.



Sanders' fans are convinced that only he can take on Trump, who also defied his party's establishment and more moderate wing four years ago to claim a surprise victory against Democratic heavyweight Hillary Clinton.



A total of 1,357 delegates were at stake on Tuesday – a third of the nationwide total. A candidate needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination outright. (AP, AFP)