Biden close to sealing Democratic nomination to face Trump in 2020

WASHINGTON: Former vice-president Joe Biden is close to wrapping up the Democratic Party nomination to face Republican President Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential election after comfortably winning four of six states that held inner-party elections on Tuesday.

Biden’s biggest win came in the crucial swing state of Michigan where he won 53 per cent of the votes and 53 delegates at stake. Sanders, who was expected to do well among blue-collar workers in the home of America’s automobile industry, having won the primaries here in 2016, floundered with only 37 per cent of votes.

Michigan is important not just in the Democratic nomination race but will also be a key factor in the Presidential election, with Trump having won it in 2016 by a mere 10,000 votes.

Sanders also failed to win the liberal state of Washington, with Biden holding him to a dead heat there. Along with wins in Mississippi, Missouri, and Idaho, the former vice-president