Sanders wins Utah voters while Biden surges nationwide

SALT LAKE CITY – Former Vice President Joe Biden surges ahead in the overall delegate count following his strong showing on Super Tuesday.  However, Utah voters are showing a lot more love to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Well over 100 people attended the Super Tuesday watch party at the Hinckley Institute of Politics.  What was surprising to many of them wasn’t that Sanders won.  They expected that.  But they didn’t expect to see former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg perform as well as he did in Utah.

Voters didn’t expect Bloomberg’s ad campaign to be as effective as it was in such a short amount of time.

“Everywhere you turn, you see a Bloomberg ad.  You go to YouTube… there’s a Bloomberg ad talking about how he can beat Trump, or his electability and stuff like that,” one man says.

Another voter says, “I know he spent millions and millions on advertisements in Utah, but that doesn’t necessarily equal support for a candidate.”

While Joe Biden did extremely well across the country, some voters were surprised to see him struggle in Utah.  When the initial results came out, Biden was in fifth place, behind Pete Buttigieg who had already dropped out.  Those numbers rose as the night progressed.

However, with Biden’s wins across the country and with recent endorsements from Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, they say Biden now has incredible momentum.

“All these different candidates from different groups and different walks of life are now supporting this one candidate,” one voter says.

Some people tell KSL they regret mailing their ballots before Buttigieg and Klobuchar dropped out.  One woman says, had she known that, it would have swayed her vote.

“I wish I could have voted with all of the information.  I didn’t think we’d see so many things shift with the election half a day or two days before the election,” she says.  “I know multiple people who are really glad that they waited.  I think I’ll wait in the future.”