Super Tuesday: Joe Biden gets endorsements from three ex-rivals
- Moderate Democrats rally around the former vice-president to strengthen his challenge to front-runner Bernie Sanders
- Biden still faces a challenge from billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg
Joe Biden’s White House campaign received a dramatic boost when three of his ex-rivals including former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke endorsed him for president on the eve of the crucial Super Tuesday primaries.
The move marked an unprecedented turn in a fractured, often bitter campaign, with the Democratic establishment desperate to coalesce around a moderate candidate who can fight off surging leftist front runner Bernie Sanders and face President Donald Trump in November.
As the five remaining Democratic candidates made their final pitch to voters in 14 states, Biden was capitalising on momentum he seized at the weekend with a blowout victory in South Carolina.
The 77-year-old former vice-president is consolidating support among moderates eager to blunt the advance of Sanders, who could take a potentially insurmountable lead in the all-important delegate count after Super Tuesday.
Biden has been riding high with key endorsements that built into a political crescendo on Monday.
He took the stage at a rally in Dallas, Texas joined by Senator Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota pragmatist who told the crowd: “today I am ending my campaign and endorsing Joe Biden” for president.
“If you feel tired of the noise and the nonsense in our politics, and you are tired of the extremes … I think you know you have a home with Joe Biden,” she added, to a loud cheer and chants of “Amy! Amy!”