Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 27, 2020 / 13:35 pm
On Monday, officials in New York announced the cancellation of the state's Democratic presidential primary, calling the event "essentially a beauty contest," and a risk to public health in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
While New York Democrats cited the inevitability of Joe Biden's nomination for the party's candidacy as justification for calling off the primary, it could actually make the former VP's spot on the ticket anything but a forgone conclusion.
Biden is the prohibitive favorite for the nomination to face Donald Trump in November. But New York could be the first step in an unlikely path to a contested Democratic convention between two Catholic politicians with national profiles.
Although Bernie Sanders is officially out of the race, Biden does not yet have an overall majority of convention delegates. As of April 27, the former vice president has 1,305 of the 1,991 delegates needed to clinch a first-round coronation at the party's convention. New York offered 320 delegates up for grabs, 274 pledged to the primary winner; a prize that would have brought Biden closer to the nomination.