5 primary takeaways: Joe Biden is Democrats’ antidote

Election judge Marsha Redmond uses gloves and wipes to sanitize each booth after a person voted at St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Rockford, Ill., Tuesday, March 17, 2020. Voters across the state are getting the chance to decide competitive primary races for the U.S. House and the Illinois Supreme Court, with concerns about the coronavirus looming large. (Scott P. Yates/Rockford Register Star via AP) Election judge Marsha Redmond uses gloves and wipes to sanitize each booth after a person voted at St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Rockford, Ill., Tuesday, March 17, 2020. Voters across the state are getting the chance to decide competitive primary races for the U.S. House and the Illinois Supreme Court, with concerns about the coronavirus looming large. (Scott P. Yates/Rockford Register Star via AP)

By BILL BARROW and NICHOLAS RICCARDI / The Associated Press March 18, 2020 6 min read

Joe Biden’s surge toward the Democratic presidential nomination rolled on Tuesday with a dominating victory in Florida, the largest delegate prize of the day, and win in Illinois and Arizona.

Takeaways from Biden’s latest victories:

BIDEN’S SURGE BECOMES A WAVE

Biden continues one of the most remarkable presidential campaign turnarounds in U.S. history.

His campaign always said he didn’t have to win Iowa or New Hampshire, because his base was in more racially diverse states that followed, a theory that often seemed more like an excuse than a strategy. But even that plan didn’t foresee the kind of catapult he has managed since blowing out the field in South Carolina on Feb. 29.