For considerably of 2019, previous Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was a constant and particular presence near the front of the Democratic presidential race. No amount of velocity bumps — verbal gaffes, criticism of his long report as a Washington politician, even assaults from Republicans in excess of his son’s dealings in Ukraine — could dislodge him from that posture, considerably fewer sink his candidacy.
But then the caucusing and voting began.
More than the next 6 weeks, Mr. Biden’s campaign would journey to the edge of collapse following two disastrously weak finishes in the Iowa and New Hampshire nominating contests, before rebounding slightly in Nevada and then upending the dynamics of the race totally with a dominating victory in South Carolina. Riding that newfound momentum, Mr. Biden pressed forward with a potent efficiency on Super Tuesday followed by a number of far more triumphs, successful critical states like Michigan and commanding the South throughout the board.
And then the coronavirus hit, reworking the character of campaigning and voting for the rest of the 12 months and leaving the race at a standstill, with Mr. Biden in the guide.
On Wednesday, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont dropped out of the race, leaving the former vice president as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Here’s a timeline charting Mr. Biden’s early slide, his exceptional rise and his uncomfortable plateau.
JAN. 22
Polls forward of the Iowa caucuses display toughness for Sanders
In the days foremost up to the Iowa caucuses, countrywide polls and surveys of early-voting states confirmed Mr. Biden’s placement weakening and Mr. Sanders coming on robust, primarily in the to start with two nominating contests, Iowa and New Hampshire. A Des Moines Register poll in early January, for instance, found that Mr. Sanders experienced a five-proportion-place lead in Iowa, and a poll executed for CNN a week in advance of the caucuses confirmed him leading Mr. Biden nationwide, 27 percent to 24 p.c.
FEB. 3
A fourth-location complete in Iowa
Mr. Biden under no circumstances anticipated to acquire Iowa — a point out in which he experienced a observe report of performing poorly in his earlier presidential bids. And when he received coveted endorsements this time around from nicely-regarded Iowans like former Gov. Tom Vilsack and his spouse, Christie Vilsack, they did not conclude up performing him much superior.
“I am not going to sugarcoat it,” Mr. Biden explained times later as he campaigned in New Hampshire. “We took a intestine punch in Iowa.”
In what may have been the cheapest point for Mr. Biden’s campaign, the former vice president followed up his disheartening effectiveness in Iowa with a fifth-place complete in New Hampshire, under the viability threshold, and with no earning any delegates from the point out. And his reasonable rivals, Mr. Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, finished 2nd and third behind Mr. Sanders and continued to obtain traction.
Possibly in anticipation of an embarrassing defeat, Mr. Biden remaining New Hampshire the working day of the primary and flew to South Carolina to keep on courting that state’s predominantly black Democratic voters.
“We’re likely on and we’re heading to acquire in Nevada and in South Carolina,” he promised supporters in a dwell stream.
FEB. 22
Sanders runs absent with Nevada
Mr. Sanders went on to assert a resounding victory in the Nevada caucuses. His triumph by more than 25 proportion details widened his delegate direct. It also proven him — at minimum for the minute — as the race’s apparent entrance-runner and presented evidence that he had, in truth, crafted the multiracial coalition he experienced promised.
Inside of a Las Vegas union corridor, Mr. Biden sought to frame his 2nd-area complete as something of a comeback though also vowing victory in the up coming contest, South Carolina.
“Y’all did it for me,” he advised supporters just before taking purpose at Mr. Sanders and Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire previous mayor of New York who was at the time a challenger for the party’s reasonable voters. “I ain’t a socialist, I ain’t a plutocrat, I’m a Democrat.”
But Mr. Biden also produced very clear just how vital successful South Carolina was to the ongoing viability of his campaign. He vowed to get the principal attacked Tom Steyer, the billionaire trader who experienced used closely in the point out pledged to appoint a black female to the Supreme Court docket and invoked his romantic relationship with former President Barack Obama.
In past debates, Mr. Biden’s performances experienced been uneven. But industry experts and analysts normally stated they believed that on a night he desperately required a powerful exhibiting, Mr. Biden did enough.
FEB. 26
James Clyburn endorses Biden
The next morning, Representative James E. Clyburn, the best-ranking African-American in Congress and just one of South Carolina’s most effective political figures, endorsed Mr. Biden.
“I’m voting for Joe Biden and South Carolinians should be voting for Joe Biden,” Mr. Clyburn mentioned as the previous vice president appeared on. “I know Joe. We know Joe. But most importantly, Joe understands us.”
Mr. Clyburn’s announcement was not a shock, but it appeared to have a seismic influence on how South Carolinians voted times afterwards.
Even with all of Mr. Biden’s earlier struggles, his so-identified as firewall in South Carolina more than held up, providing him a decisive victory there that would modify the trajectory of the race. Mr. Biden drew on the energy of his many years-prolonged interactions in the state and on his near bond with black voters to crush the relaxation of the area, winning more than 48 percent of the vote and each individual county in South Carolina.
The accomplishment place Mr. Biden in a exuberant temper for his victory speech, in which he seemed forward to Super Tuesday and produced recurring arguments, at least implicitly, against Mr. Sanders.
“If Democrats want a nominee who’s a Democrat, a lifelong Democrat, a happy Democrat, an Obama-Biden Democrat, join us,” Mr. Biden mentioned. “We have the alternative of successful huge or dropping big. That is the choice.”
MARCH 1-2
The Democratic establishment falls in line
The effects in South Carolina also experienced reverberations over and above Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders, who completed in a distant 2nd area. Mr. Buttigieg and Ms. Klobuchar each finished in the solitary digits — very poor showings that proved lethal to their strategies.
Just a day soon after Mr. Biden’s victory in South Carolina, Mr. Buttigieg exited the race Ms. Klobuchar did the exact the following working day and promptly endorsed Mr. Biden. Hrs later on, the two previous presidential candidates joined previous Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas and all a few set their pounds at the rear of Mr. Biden in Dallas on the eve of Tremendous Tuesday.
A cascade of Biden endorsements from Democratic mayors, senators and governors swiftly adopted, with several emphasizing the need to have for party unity to defeat President Trump in the typical election. Collectively, they made very clear that mainstream Democratic leaders experienced coalesced behind a solitary candidate.
MARCH 3
A Tremendous Tuesday triumph
“They do not connect with it Super Tuesday for almost nothing!” an enthusiastic Mr. Biden told supporters in Los Angeles on his way to winning 10 states and hundreds of delegates, showing he had thoroughly revitalized his marketing campaign.
When the dust last but not least settled on the Democratic key race’s largest day, the condition of the nominating contest had fundamentally improved. Mr. Biden had won North Carolina, Texas and Virginia with the backing of African-People in america and moderates Mr. Sanders experienced leaned on the aid of liberals and young voters to assert California and the race now had two entrance-runners.
At the exact time, it was distinct that the momentum had shifted in Mr. Biden’s favor. The Super Tuesday contests showed that Mr. Biden was both garnering help from black voters and turning out voters in the suburbs Mr. Sanders quickly faced questions about why youth voter turnout appeared to be flagging.
“This is your marketing campaign,” an energized Mr. Biden said throughout his Super Tuesday victory speech. “Just a few days ago the push declared the campaign lifeless. And then came South Carolina. And they experienced a little something to say about it. And we ended up instructed when we got to Super Tuesday it would be over. Perfectly, it may possibly be about for the other dude.”
MARCH 4
Bloomberg stands down and backs Biden, and other individuals abide by accommodate
Mr. Sanders was not the only candidate damaged by Mr. Biden’s increase. Mr. Bloomberg, who experienced joined the race in part to provide a average alternate if Mr. Biden faltered, dropped out of the race and endorsed the previous vice president the working day just after Tremendous Tuesday.
Mr. Bloomberg’s network of advocacy groups and many elected officers who experienced backed the former mayor quickly adopted accommodate. And in the coming times, Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California — both equally former presidential candidates — would also present their support to Mr. Biden.
The “Joementum” spilled into another crucial Tuesday, as Mr. Biden took command of the race, notching victories in Missouri, Mississippi and Michigan — the greatest prize of the night — in quick succession. He would adhere to up those successes by successful Idaho and Washington Point out, leaving only North Dakota for Mr. Sanders on a night time that six states voted.
Mr. Biden’s successes in Michigan and Washington Point out were particularly crushing to Mr. Sanders, who experienced won a beautiful upset in Michigan for the duration of his 2016 presidential bid and had hoped to do properly in the West Coastline condition of Washington, which had appeared demographically beneficial to him.
The March 10 results solidified Mr. Biden’s coalition of black voters, woman voters, older voters and white voters with school levels, giving a clearer feeling of what a Biden coalition could seem like transferring ahead.
At the very same time, Mr. Sanders’s path to the nomination became exceptionally narrow.
“I want to thank Bernie Sanders and the supporters for their tireless strength and their enthusiasm,” Mr. Biden reported in Philadelphia. “We share a typical target. Jointly we’ll defeat Donald Trump.”
March 11-now
Campaigning through a pandemic
Shortly afterward, the globe transformed. The novel coronavirus, which had now started out to have an impact on may perhaps components of everyday life, fully upended the campaign.
Standing 6 feet aside, Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders faced off at a discussion with no studio audience on March 15. Two times later on, Mr. Biden easily swept Arizona, Florida and Illinois, leaving almost no path for Mr. Sanders and solidifying the former vice president’s energy in the Midwest and the Southeast.
Ohio was also intended to have a major on March 17, but the governor ordered precincts shut for the reason that of the coronavirus. A wave of other states pushed back their primaries to late April or June in hopes the pandemic would subside by then.
The halting influence of the virus solidified Mr. Biden’s guide in the race — he now has 1,217 delegates to Mr. Sanders’s 941 — but also pushed him largely off the campaign trail.
He is struggling to discover his part during the general public well being crisis as the presumptive Democratic nominee, and is seeking to discover new ways to link with voters and crack by means of in the news media. He has spoken progressively overtly about his process of picking out a managing mate, who he has promised will be a woman. He started a podcast. He has hosted digital satisfied several hours even though he doesn’t consume.
In lots of techniques, Mr. Biden is again to the place he was when he entered the race: acting as the Democratic regular-bearer, facing a overwhelming basic election from Mr. Trump.