Joe Biden scores huge victory over Sanders in Wisconsin in race overshadowed by coronavirus

Results announced as Vermont senator officially endorses former vice president

Joe Biden has won a huge victory over Bernie Sanders in the Wisconsin primary – a race mired by controversy and overshadowed by the coronavirus crisis.

On the day the former vice president received the official endorsement of the Vermont senator in his bid to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, Mr Biden purred to another victory.

Actual in-person voting took place a week ago amid accusations that Republican officials were threatening people’s safety by refusing to postpone the vote, or permit absentee voting for everyone.

The release of the results was delayed after a federal court ordered an extension to extend the deadline for such postal voting. With more than half of the votes counted, Mr Biden led Mr Sanders 63 – 31 and was declared the winner by multiple media outlets, including the Associated Press.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Biden and Mr Sanders had appeared by livestream to allow the man from Vermont urge his supporters to back the former vice president.

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“[Democrats, independents and Republicans must] come together in this campaign to support his candidacy, which I endorse, to make certain that we defeat somebody who I believe…is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country,” said the 78-year-old said.

Mr Biden, 77, added said the two men had disagreed, but had remained friends.

“To Bernie’s supporters: I see you, I hear you, and I understand the urgency of what it is we have to get done in this country,” he said. “I hope you will join us. You are more than welcome on this campaign. You’re needed.”

A day after last Tuesday’s primary contest, Mr Sanders announced he was dropping out of the race, having for several weeks failed to make traction against Mr Biden. He said given how unlikely it was for him to make up the delegate count by which he was trailing his rival, it would not be correct to continue his bid while the nation was trying to counter the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wisconsin, which has 90 delegates and 10 electoral college votes, will be among the toughest fought battlegrounds in the showdown between Republicans and Democrats in November. In 2016, Mr Trump squeaked it there by around 22,000 one of three stark upsets – the other being Michigan and Pennsylvania – that allowed him to bag the White House against Hillary Clinton.

Voters in the state were not just selecting a presidential nominee, but a raft of local officials.

Among those most keenly watched was a seat on the state’s supreme court, where Dan Kelly, a conservative incumbent endorsed by Mr Trump, was seeking to hold off a challenge from and his liberal challenger, Jill Karofsky.