| THE LEDE So...Tuesday’s contests changed quite a lot: Michael Bloomberg tanked (we’ll always have American Samoa), Joe Biden had an absolutely fantastic night (he was enjoying himself, and it showed), and Bernie Sanders had an OK night, likely winning California, but coming up really short in places he handily won in 2016. Biden’s decisive victory in South Carolina over the weekend, propelled by the black electorate, made a massive difference in how Tuesday played out — so much so that the Bloomberg campaign’s internal data swung to Biden so quickly that they “couldn’t even model it.”
The late-breaking Biden voters: Nidhi Prakash tracked down a few women in California last night who told her they decided very late in the game to vote for Biden. Their answers were really illuminating. "I saw all these people dropping out and they were all endorsing Biden, and I thought, Biden is the one who can be elected," one said. "So I did not mail in my ballot. I went to vote today, tore up my ballot, and voted for Biden."
72 hours: Because it all happened so fast, 72 hours is the exact and only amount of time that has seemed to matter this year. Here is chief space-time continuum correspondent Katherine Miller: “[Biden] leads Sanders in a two-person race, locked into place by Nevada and South Carolina, compounded by California and the South. Two expected outcomes took us back to where we were, a year ago, seemingly based on what’s happened in the immediate vicinity of people’s minds. The entire thing has the vibe of reaching out with your right hand somewhere offscreen, and tapping your own left shoulder.”
READ RECEIPTS Addisu Demissie Addisu Demissie (@ASDem on Twitter), a Democratic strategist who ran Sen. Cory Booker’s presidential campaign, was kind enough to text with me the Wednesday morning after Super Tuesday, even though this newsletter’s former author had previously bumped him. We had a great chat about the nature of where the race is right now, he made some predictions about next week, and we admired Jill Biden and Symone Sanders’ absolutely no-nonsense ability to fight off some protesters who stormed the stage. ON THE TRAIL WITH BUZZFEED NEWS Ema O’Connor ended up riding the train down to DC with Andrew Yang on Tuesday. He told her that he’s looking at running for mayor of New York!
From Ruby Cramer and Molly Hensley-Clancy: Here’s the heartwarming tale of the unlikeliest friendship in politics — the one between Amy Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders.
To know what Elizabeth Warren’s die-hard supporters were feeling in the lead-up to Super Tuesday, you really must read Molly’s piece on Jared Mollenkof, who has spent countless hours knocking on doors in Minnesota.
A familiar face may be coming back to Congress: Jeff Sessions is one step closer to winning his old Senate seat back, Kadia Goba reports.
From Addy Baird: Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar fended off a primary challenge from Jessica Cisneros, a 26-year-old immigration attorney, in Texas’s 28th district — a defeat for the progressive movement.
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