archived recording 1 The 2020 race for the Democratic nomination is now essentially down to a two-man contest between former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. archived recording 2 There are six states holding primary elections today. Out of those six states, Michigan holding the most delegates, 125. archived recording (joe biden) Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Idaho, Washington state, you will be heard. archived recording (bernie sanders) On Tuesday, there is going to be a very, very important primary here in Michigan. archived recording 1 Michigan could be a make-or-break moment for Sanders. Do you see it that way? archived recording 2 Sure. Absolutely, yeah. archived recording (joe biden) Michigan, I’m counting on you in a big way.

alex burns

Hey, it’s Alex Burns in New York. We’ve just had another big election night and another major breakthrough for Joe Biden. The Democratic primary campaign moved to six new states on Tuesday. And the question was whether Biden would keep the momentum he gained on Super Tuesday, or whether Bernie Sanders would make a comeback of his own, most of all in Michigan, where Sanders won a stunning upset against Hillary Clinton four years ago.

archived recording It is 9 p.m. on the East Coast, and polls are now closed, just about —

alex burns

As results rolled in, it became clear that it was Biden’s night. He won, and he won decisively in Michigan —

archived recording NBC News can now project that Joe Biden is going to win the state of Michigan.

alex burns

— in Missouri —

archived recording Live with some breaking news. ABC News can now project Joe Biden will win the Missouri Democratic primary here. This is a huge win.

alex burns

— and in Mississippi.

archived recording CBS News projects former Vice President Joe Biden will win the primary in Mississippi.

alex burns

He won on the strength of a multiracial coalition that has propelled his national resurgence over the last three weeks. A coalition that has combined some of the Democratic Party’s most loyal voters, including African-Americans and women, with newer arrivals including moderate white voters who have fled Donald Trump’s Republican Party. At this point, Biden’s political campaign has come full circle from front-runner to underdog to front-runner again, and now very likely the future Democratic presidential nominee. But the latest is that Sanders’s political base from 2016, the one that made him such a powerful challenger to Hillary Clinton, has really broken apart.

archived recording Here’s the situation. If you take a look at all these states, Bernie Sanders barely lost Missouri last time. He only was down one delegate when Missouri was done. That’s not going to be the case tonight. He looks like he’s going to lose it in a very big way. He lost Mississippi in a very big way. The other three states are going to be very close. He blew out Hillary Clinton by 40 points in each of those three states, and so —

alex burns

He still has strong support from young people and very liberal voters. But his support from working-class white voters and rural whites really evaporated on Tuesday.

archived recording 1 Joe Biden is leading among white voters in the state. That’s where Bernie Sanders won in 2016. archived recording 2 Kalamazoo, home of Western Michigan, basically all in right now. Here is Bernie Sanders barely hanging on, a one-point margin. Again, four years ago, this was a landslide. This was —

alex burns

Sanders had argued that he could drive up turnout among progressives and again win over rural Midwesterners as he did in 2016. But that didn’t happen.

archived recording 1 A working-class vote, a blue-collar vote. And as we’ve been talking about all night, that was really the vote that propelled him to victory four years ago in Michigan. archived recording 2 And to see Joe Biden come in and start to eat away at the Sanders voters, white, working-class voters included, is a devastating blow to Bernie Sanders’s campaign.

alex burns

In fact, Biden routed Sanders across the countryside in Michigan and Missouri.

archived recording 1 So we’re starting to see a bigger picture here of Democratic primary voters kind of starting to really align behind Joe Biden. You you saw in our exit polling, too, the things that they care about are electability and in some —

alex burns

So Sanders’s struggle is not just about losing specific states. It’s about seeing his theory of how to build a progressive majority put to the test and so far seeing it fail. It really undercuts Sanders’s claim that only a candidate like him, who trumpets far-reaching change, a political revolution, can energize the voters Democrats need to win. So now it’s up to Joe Biden to show he can excite the voters who Bernie Sanders did bring into the party.

archived recording (joe biden) And I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and their passion.

alex burns

You heard Biden deliver a plea for unity on Tuesday night and tell Sanders voters —

archived recording (joe biden) We share a common goal.

alex burns

— they shared a common goal of defeating Donald Trump.

archived recording (joe biden) We need you, we want you and there’s a place in our campaign for each of you.

alex burns

But it’s an open question whether young people will ever embrace Biden the way they have embraced Sanders, the way they continue to embrace Sanders. And if Biden is nominated, how much help Bernie Sanders might give him.

archived recording (joe biden) But winning means, winning means uniting America, not sowing more division and anger. It means having a president who not only knows how to fight but knows how to heal. [APPLAUSE]

alex burns

So that’s the latest.

[music]