Birtherism was a conspiracy theory based on a factual lie. Even debunking that kind of theory can be a bad idea because it tends to help the falsehood reach more people — some of whom then believe the lie.

The anti-Harris theory, in contrast, is based on a fringe constitutional claim about the meaning of the words of the 14th Amendment. When it comes to constitutional claims, even extreme ones, it’s important to explain why they are wrong in order to refute them.

It����ap therefore both valuable and necessary to explain carefully why this theory is incorrect as a matter of constitutional law.

To do that, you need to start with the theory itself. It starts with the constitutional provision of Article II that says, “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.” (To be vice president, you have to meet the eligibility requirements to be president.)

According to the attack theory, the meaning of “natural born” should be derived from the 14th amendment, which says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The attack on Harris’s eligibility focuses on the words “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The basic idea is supposed to be that those words modify the words “born in … the United States.” The theory asserts that children of non-citizens aren’t subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. If that is so, runs the argument, they aren’t citizens.

Think about that for a moment. Accepting this theory wouldn’t only mean Harris is ineligible to serve as vice president. It also would lead to the conclusion that Harris isn’t a citizen at all. And nor are all the other children of immigrants in the United States.

That’s not a pure coincidence. This attack is derived from an earlier attack on birthright citizenship, one that was being pushed most recently in 2018, when I last wrote about it. The anti-immigrant fringe has just taken this earlier argument and aimed it at Harris.

It����ap an incoherent idea that was squarely rejected by the Supreme Court over a century ago. In 1898, a landmark decision called U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark held that children of immigrants who are born in the U.S. are citizens. It mentioned three categories of children who might have been excluded by the words “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”: Native American children; children of foreign diplomats; or children of foreign occupiers who were invading the United States at the time the children were born there. Obviously, none of these categories applies to Kamala Harris.

This also aligns pretty closely with the original meaning of the words “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th amendment. This is all usefully explained in a law review article by the scholar Gerard Magliocca, the author of the leading biography of John Bingham, the main draftsman of that 1868 amendment.

The original purpose of the natural born citizen requirement in Article II (which dates back to the draft Constitution of 1787) was probably to keep specific foreigners from becoming presidential candidates. (I wrote about this issue, too, a couple of years ago in a different column.) Tom Lee, a brilliant scholar with an uncanny penchant for uncovering the framers’ original intent, suspects it was specifically aimed at preventing the Marquis de Lafayette, who was popular in post-revolutionary America, from being made commander in chief.

In any case, there would be no conceivable reason to try to apply that exclusion to a child of immigrants who was born in the United States. To reach that conclusion, you basically have to be an anti-immigrant zealot who opposes birthright citizenship altogether.

The upshot is that the attack on Harris’s eligibility is standard-issue xenophobia, albeit dressed up in a fringe constitutional theory.

The framers would be proud, not threatened, to see a child of immigrants running for the vice presidency. Whatever their flaws — and they were many — the framers understood that the United States was a nation of immigrants. Article II allowed immigrants to become president, provided they were citizens at the time of ratification. The 14th amendment formalized birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants. These are settled legal facts — and will remain so.

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg ����ap columnist and a professor of law at Harvard University.

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As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, nearly 1.4 million ballots had been returned to clerk’s offices statewide compared to the 1.16 million ballots cast in the 2018 primary. The election two years ago set a record for the largest primary turnout among Colorado registered voters in at least a decade.

Politics watchers in Colorado have theories for the surge in voting this year ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the roiling political atmosphere centered on racial injustice to the fact that the state’s first presidential primary in 20 years — held just four months ago — helped smooth out registration hiccups that can lower voter participation.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold showed off a mobile voting center in Denver’s Swansea neighborhood Tuesday morning, telling reporters that the state’s versatile election system — with multiple ways to fill out and return ballots — is the “national standard.”

“At no time in our state’s history has voter access been more important than right now,” Griswold said. “The pandemic and the protests of police brutality of Black Americans that we have seen reinforces how vital voting is to our society.”

Political analyst Eric Sondermann agreed that “people’s antenna are highly tuned in at this moment” and that “the stakes of all political issues are elevated,” as streets in cities across the nation filled with protesters following the death of a Black Minneapolis man at the hands of police in May.

Sondermann admitted to being somewhat surprised by the size of the gap between turnout in 2020 and 2018 given the fact that there is just one statewide race on this ballot — the contest between John Hickenlooper and Andrew Romanoff for the Democratic nomination to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner in November.

Democratic primary ballots are being returned at a far greater rate than Republican ballots — 796,000 to 512,000. Unaffiliated voters in Colorado were able to participate in primaries for the first time starting two years ago, after voters passed a measure allowing those not registered to a party to take part in primary elections. Unaffiliateds can vote either party’s ballot but not both.

The uptick in 2020 voting is echoed in counties big and small. Denver has already received more than 154,000 ballots from voters and that’s not counting the ballots that came in during the hours before polls closed Tuesday. The 2018 primary saw just over 146,000 ballots cast by Denverites when all was said and done.

“We have a very forward outreach effort now,” said Paul López, Denver’s clerk and recorder.

In Chaffee County, Clerk & Recorder Lori Mitchell said she has already gotten back nearly 6,200 primary ballots as of Monday, well north of the 5,730 ballots that were cast in June 2018.

She pointed to the coronavirus pandemic as a possible factor in the voter participation increase this year.

“People are at home and they feel a little helpless, but they can vote,” Mitchell said. “People are feeling this is something they can control.”

She also said Chaffee County has made it as easy as possible for people to vote, opening a drive-thru voting center where people using various modes of transport — horseback, stilts, a unicycle — are dropping off their ballots.

Pam Anderson, a former Jefferson County clerk and current executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said one difference between 2018 and now is that 2020 is a presidential election year, which has historically goosed turnout.

Colorado’s presidential primary took place in March, and the 1.8 million voters who participated updated their information then, so they were ready to vote in June, Anderson said.

“I think the presidential primary was a huge advantage to energizing voters,” she said.

“Joe has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery,” in which he argued the coronavirus pandemic reinforced the need for better leadership.

The endorsement marked Obama’s return to presidential politics more than three years after leaving the White House. He didn’t mention his successor, President Donald Trump, by name and instead sought to bridge the ideological divide among Democrats.

Obama commended Bernie Sanders, who was the leading progressive foil to Biden during the Democratic primary. The Vermont senator ended his campaign last week and threw his support behind Biden on Monday.

The former president called Sanders an “American original” and backed his frequent call for “structural change.” But he also said that while Democrats “may not always agree on every detail,” they must unify to defeat Republicans.

“The Republicans occupying the White House and running the U.S. Senate are not interested in progress,” he said. “They’re interested in power.”

Biden now has the support of all of his former Democratic primary rivals except for Elizabeth Warren. The Massachusetts senator is expected to formally endorse Biden soon, according to a person familiar with her plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss her thinking.

Two other prominent Democrats who have yet to publicly back Biden are former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the party’s 2016 nominee. Hillary Clinton has been in regular touch with Biden, including several times since Sanders dropped out of the race, according to an aide.

Obama avoided intervening in the Democratic primary, but followed the race closely from the sidelines and is eager to take a more active public role. He’s expected to headline fundraisers for Biden and public events in key swing states, if such gatherings can still be held given social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic.

After his endorsement was released, Obama sent a fundraising appeal to Biden supporters, asking for donations ranging from $5 to $100.

The endorsement will test whether Obama can transfer his personal popularity to Biden. While the former president is seen favorably by a wide swath of Democratic voters, he was also a deeply polarizing figure during his two terms in office. During his presidency, Democrats lost about 1,000 legislative seats around the country, starting with disastrous 2010 midterms that also cost the party control of the House and many statehouses.

In 2018, he campaigned for some winning Senate and gubernatorial candidates, like Sen. Jacky Rosen in Nevada and Gov. Tony Evers in Wisconsin. But his influence seemed less powerful in other places such as Florida.

The Trump campaign noted that Obama tacitly discouraged Biden from running for president in 2016 and said the former president is only backing him now because everyone else has dropped out of the primary.

“Now that Biden is the only candidate left in the Democrat field, Obama has no other choice but to support him,” Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, said in a statement.

Though Obama stayed out of the primary, Biden frequently pointed to their time together in the White House. Biden often spoke of the “Obama-Biden” administration when talking about various accomplishments and referred to himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

But he also insisted he was running as his own man, telling anyone who asked that he urged Obama not to endorse him out of the gate or even in the thick of the primary.

Obama’s tenure became a sort of punching bag for some presidential hopefuls in a primary fight that early on was defined by a debate over the need for generational and systemic change versus a return to normalcy after the Trump era.

Julián Castro pushed Biden repeatedly on whether he argued with Obama privately over deportations overseen by that administration. Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke jabbed Biden – and by extension, Obama — by suggesting the party shouldn’t “return to the past.” Sanders and Warren said the 2010 Affordable Care Act hadn’t gone far enough.

But Biden was a staunch defender of that legislation and called it “bizarre” for Democrats, even faintly, to attack Obama’s record.

The conversation around Obama’s presidency shifted as the primary wore on. By the time voting began, Buttigieg was almost explicitly comparing his youthful bid to Obama’s 2008 campaign, and the progressives were framing their health care proposals as a way to build on Obama’s legacy. Billionaire candidate Mike Bloomberg, meanwhile, featured Obama in his ubiquitous advertising effort, much to Biden’s chagrin.

“You’d think Mike was Barack’s vice president,” Biden once quipped to donors.

For his part, Biden leaned even more heavily into Obama as primary voting began. Aiming at Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist, and Bloomberg, who’d been elected New York City mayor as a Republican, Biden said in a Feb. 21 interview with The Associated Press that “they’re not bad folks. They’re just not Democrats.”

Campaigning before increasingly diverse audiences in Nevada and South Carolina, Biden ramped up his recollections of when Obama tapped him for the ticket in 2008. Biden recalled Inauguration Day 2009, waiting for the train in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, “for a black man to pick me up … for the two of us to be sworn in as president and vice president of the United States.”

Often drawing nods and vocal affirmation from his audiences, Biden said he had thought of that day as a national victory over institutional racism. Now, in the Trump era, Biden calls that conclusion a mistake.

“I thought we could defeat hate,” he said, but “it never goes away.”

“I am asking all Americans, I’m asking every Democrat, I’m asking every independent, I’m asking a lot of Republicans, to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse,” Sanders said.

The backing is a crucial development for Biden, who must bridge the Democratic Party’s ideological divide to unify voters against President Donald Trump in the fall. Biden and Sanders, a leading progressive, clashed throughout the primary over policy issues such as the “Medicare for All” universal health care plan.

The endorsement stands in contrast to the extended 2016 fight between Sanders and Hillary Clinton, who became the nominee that year. Sanders endorsed Clinton, but only after the end of a drawn-out nominating fight and amid a bitter fight over the Democratic platform that extended to the summer convention.

Sanders did not immediately address Monday whether he would continue to fight for delegates at state conventions around the country or whether he’d simply use his newfound alliance with Biden to influence the nominee and the policy slate that he will present voters.

Appearing in a split screen with Biden, Sanders said there’s “no great secret out there that you and I have our differences.”

But he cited ongoing work between the two camps on several policy matters as a reason for the endorsement. And he said the biggest priority was defeating Trump.

“We’ve got to make Trump a one-term president,” Sanders said. “I will do all that I can to make that happen.”

WASHINGTON — A former Senate aide who last year accused Joe Biden of inappropriate touching has made an allegation of sexual assault against the former vice president, the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee this fall.

The former aide, Tara Reade, who briefly worked as a staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office, told The New York Times that in 1993, Biden pinned her to a wall in a Senate building, reached under her clothing and penetrated her with his fingers. A friend said that Reade told her the details of the allegation at the time. Another friend and a brother of Reade’s said she told them over the years about a traumatic sexual incident involving Biden.

A spokeswoman for Biden said the allegation was false. In interviews, several people who worked in the Senate office with Reade said they did not recall any talk of such an incident or similar behavior by Biden toward her or any women. Two office interns who worked directly with Reade said they were unaware of the allegation or any treatment that troubled her.

Last year, Reade and seven other women came forward to accuse Biden of kissing, hugging or touching them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. Reade told The Times then that Biden had publicly stroked her neck, wrapped his fingers in her hair and touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable.

Soon after Reade made the new allegation, in a podcast interview released March 25, The Times began reporting on her account and seeking corroboration through interviews, documents and other sources. The Times interviewed Reade on multiple days over hours, as well as those she told about Biden’s behavior and other friends. The Times has also interviewed lawyers who spoke to Reade about her allegation; nearly two dozen people who worked with Biden during the early 1990s, including many who worked with Reade; and the other seven women who criticized Biden last year, to discuss their experiences with him.

No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Reade’s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Biden.

On Thursday, Reade filed a report with the Washington, D.C., police, saying she was the victim of a sexual assault in 1993; the public incident report, provided to The Times by Reade and the police, does not mention Biden by name, but she said the complaint was about him. Reade said she filed the report to give herself an additional degree of safety from potential threats. Filing a false police report may be punishable by a fine and imprisonment.

Reade, who worked as a staff assistant helping manage office interns, said she also filed a complaint with the Senate in 1993 about Biden; she said she did not have a copy of it, and such paperwork has not been located. The Biden campaign said it did not have a complaint. The Times reviewed an official copy of her employment history from the Senate that she provided showing she was hired in December 1992 and paid by Biden’s office until August 1993.

The seven other women who had complained about Biden told The Times this month that they did not have any new information about their experiences to add, but several said they believed Reade’s account.

Last year, Biden, 77, acknowledged the women’s complaints about his conduct, saying his intentions were benign and promising to be “more mindful and respectful of people’s personal space.”

In response to Reade’s allegation, Kate Bedingfield, a deputy Biden campaign manager, said in a statement, “Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women. He authored and fought for the passage and reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act. He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard — and heard respectfully. Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press. What is clear about this claim: It is untrue. This absolutely did not happen.”

Reade made her new allegation public as Biden was closing in on the Democratic presidential nomination after winning a string of primaries against his chief rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders. Reade, who describes herself as a “third-generation Democrat,” said she originally favored Marianne Williamson and Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the race but voted for Sanders in the California primary last month. She said her decision to come forward had nothing to do with politics or helping Sanders and added that neither his campaign nor the Trump campaign had encouraged her to make her allegation.

President Donald Trump has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by more than a dozen women, who have described a pattern of behavior that went far beyond the accusations against Biden. The president also directed illegal payments — including $130,000 to a pornographic film actress, Stormy Daniels — before the 2016 election to silence women about alleged affairs with Trump, according to federal prosecutors.

Trump has even boasted about his mistreatment of women; in a 2005 recording, he described pushing himself on women and said he would “grab them by the pussy,” bragging that he could get away with “anything” because of his celebrity.

Even so, Trump has at times attacked opponents over their treatment of women. The president has not mentioned Reade’s allegation, which has circulated on social media and in liberal and conservative news outlets.

Reade’s Account

Reade, 56, told The Times that the assault happened in the spring of 1993. She said she had tracked down Biden to deliver an athletic bag when he pushed her against a cold wall, started kissing her neck and hair and propositioned her. He slid his hand up her cream-colored blouse, she said, and used his knee to part her bare legs before reaching under her skirt.

“It happened at once. He’s talking to me, and his hands are everywhere, and everything is happening very quickly,” she recalled. “He was kissing me, and he said, very low, ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’”

Reade said she pulled away and Biden stopped.

“He looked at me kind of almost puzzled or shocked,” she said. “He said, ‘Come on, man, I heard you liked me.’”

At the time, Reade said she worried whether she had done something wrong to encourage his advances.

“He pointed his finger at me, and he just goes, ‘You’re nothing to me. Nothing,’” she said. “Then, he took my shoulders and said, ‘You’re OK. You’re fine.’”

Biden walked down the hallway, Reade said, and she cleaned up in a restroom, made her way home and, sobbing, called her mother, who encouraged her to immediately file a police report.

Instead, Reade said, she complained to Marianne Baker, Biden’s executive assistant, as well as to two top aides, Dennis Toner and Ted Kaufman, about harassment by Biden — not mentioning the alleged assault.

The staff declined to take action, Reade said, after which she filed a written complaint with a Senate personnel office. She said office staff took away most of her duties, including supervising the interns; assigned her a windowless office; and made the work environment uncomfortable for her.

She said Kaufman later told her she was not a good fit in the office, giving her a month to look for a job. Reade never secured another position in Washington.

In an interview, Kaufman, a longtime friend of Biden’s who was his chief of staff at the time, said, “I did not know her. She did not come to me. If she had, I would have remembered her.”

Toner, who worked for Biden for more than three decades, said the allegation was out of character for Biden. Other senators and office staffs had reputations for harassing women at work and partying after hours, according to those who worked in the office at the time. Biden was known for racing to catch the train to get home to Wilmington, Delaware, every night.

“It����ap just so preposterous that Sen. Biden would be faced with these allegations,” said Toner, who was deputy chief of staff when Reade worked in the office. “I don’t remember her. I don’t remember this conversation. And I would remember this conversation.”

The Biden campaign issued a statement from Baker, Biden’s executive assistant from 1982 to 2000.

“I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received any reports of inappropriate conduct, period — not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone,” she said. “I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade’s accounting of events, which would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional and as a manager.”

Melissa Lefko, a former staff assistant for Biden from 1992 to 1993, said she did not remember Reade. But she recalled that Biden’s office was a “very supportive environment for women” and said she had never experienced any kind of harassment there.

“When you work on the Hill, everyone knows who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, and Biden was a good guy,” she said.

Reade said that she could not remember the exact time, date or location of the assault but that it occurred in a “semiprivate” place in the Senate office complex.

A friend said that Reade told her about the alleged assault at the time, in 1993. A second friend recalled Reade telling her in 2008 that Biden had touched her inappropriately and that she’d had a traumatic experience while working in his office. Both friends agreed to speak to The Times on the condition of anonymity to protect the privacy of their families and their self-owned businesses.

Reade said she also told her brother, who has confirmed parts of her account publicly but who did not speak to The Times, and her mother, who has since died.

Differing Recollections

At the time of the alleged assault, Reade said she was responsible for coordinating interns in the office. Two former interns who worked with her said they never heard her describe any inappropriate conduct by Biden or saw her directly interact with him in any capacity but recalled that she abruptly stopped supervising them in April, before the end of their internship. Others who worked in the office at the time said they remembered Reade but not any inappropriate behavior.

Friends and former co-workers describe Reade as friendly, caring, compassionate and trustworthy, though perhaps a bit naive. A single mother, she changed her name for protection after leaving an abusive marriage in the late 1990s and put herself through law school in Seattle. After leaving Biden’s office, she eventually returned to the West Coast, where she worked for a state senator; as an advocate for domestic violence survivors, testifying as an expert witness in court; and for animal rescue organizations.

During her time in Biden’s office, he was working to pass the Violence Against Women Act, which Biden has described as his “proudest legislative accomplishment.” In 2017, Reade retweeted praise for Biden and his work combating sexual assault. In more recent months, her feed has featured support for Sanders and criticism of Biden.

Reade said she did not disclose the sexual assault allegation last year when she spoke out because she was scared. After her initial complaints were reported last year by a local California newspaper, Reade said she faced a wave of criticism and death threats as well as accusations that she was a Russian agent because of Medium posts and tweets, several of which are now deleted, that she had written praising President Vladimir Putin.

Reade said that she was not working for Russia and did not support Putin and that her comments were pulled out of context from a novel she was writing at the time.

“It was trying to smear me and distract from what happened, but it won’t change the facts of what happened in 1993,” she said.

She called her praise for Putin “misguided.”

Reade tried to get legal and public relations support from the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, an initiative established by prominent women in Hollywood to fight sexual harassment. Her outreach to the group was first reported by The Intercept.

As it has for thousands of people who have contacted the group, the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which does not represent clients, gave her a list of lawyers with expertise in such cases. She said she contacted every single one, but none took her case. Two lawyers confirmed speaking to Reade but declined to comment on the record about her or the allegation.

SKDKnickerbocker, the political consulting firm where Biden’s chief strategist, Anita Dunn, works as a managing director, has a contract with the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. Dunn has never worked with the fund, and her firm was not told of Reade’s request, according to officials at the fund.

Reade also contacted at least one of the women who spoke out along with her last year about Biden’s penchant for physical contact.

Lucy Flores, a former Nevada state assemblywoman who accused Biden of making her uncomfortable by kissing and touching her during a 2014 campaign event, exchanged a few emails last year with Reade but said Reade did not share her full story.

“Biden is not just a hugger,” Flores said. “Biden very clearly was invading women’s spaces without their consent in a way that made them feel uncomfortable. Does he potentially have the capacity to go beyond that? That����ap the answer everyone is trying to get at.”

Biden beat Sanders Saturday 55.3% to 44.7%. A total of 19,759 votes were cast.

Biden gets 11 delegates and Sanders gets 4. Overall, Biden has 1,228 delegates and Sanders has 918, according to the count by The Associated Press.

Casey Steinau, chairwoman of the state party, said Sanders, along with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who also have suspended their campaigns, asked to be included in the tallies.

Sanders suspended his campaign this week but said he would keep his name on the ballot in states that haven’t yet voted. He aims to collect delegates as part of an effort to influence the party’s platform at this year’s Democratic National Convention.

Sanders won the state party’s caucuses in 2016, over Hillary Clinton.

The Alaska primary originally was scheduled for April 4, but concerns with COVID-19 upended plans. In response, the party, which had planned to offer voting by mail and at in-person locations, went exclusively to a vote-by-mail system.

The primary itself was new to Alaska Democrats, who moved from their traditional caucuses to a primary for this year’s race in a move Steinau said was aimed at increasing participation. It used rank-choice ballots.

The party said it sent in early March ballots to every person who was registered as a Democrat as of mid-February, more than 71,000. The party also included voter registration forms and downloadable ballots on its website.

Ballots had to be received by Friday to be counted, the party said.

The Vermont senator’s announcement makes Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge President Donald Trump in November.

“The path toward victory is virtually impossible,” Sanders told supporters as he congratulated Biden. The former vice president is “a very decent man whom I will work with to move our progressive ideas forward.”

Sanders initially exceeded sky-high expectations about his ability to recreate the magic of his 2016 presidential bid, and even overcame a heart attack last October. But he found himself unable to convert unwavering support from progressives into a viable path to the nomination amid “electability” fears fueled by questions about whether his democratic socialist ideology would be palatable to general election voters.

The 78-year-old senator began his latest White House bid facing questions about whether he could win back the supporters who chose him four years ago as an insurgent alternative to the party establishment����ap choice, Hillary Clinton. Despite winning 22 states in 2016, there were no guarantees he’d be a major presidential contender this cycle, especially as the race’s oldest candidate.

Sanders, though, used strong polling and solid fundraising — collected almost entirely from small donations made online — to more than quiet early doubters. Like the first time, he attracted widespread support from young voters and was able to make new inroads within the Hispanic community, even as his appeal with African Americans remained small.

Sanders amassed the most votes in Iowa and New Hampshire, which opened primary voting, and cruised to an easy victory in Nevada — seemingly leaving him well positioned to sprint to the Democratic nomination while a deeply crowded and divided field of alternatives sunk around him.

But a crucial endorsement of Biden by influential South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, and a subsequent, larger-than-expected victory in South Carolina, propelled the former vice president into Super Tuesday, when he won 10 of 14 states.

In a matter of days, his top former Democratic rivals lined up and announced their endorsement of Biden. The former vice president����ap campaign had appeared on the brink of collapse after New Hampshire but found new life as the rest of the party’s more moderate establishment coalesced around him as an alternative to Sanders.

Things only got worse the following week when Sanders lost Michigan, where he had campaigned hard and upset Clinton in 2016. He was also beaten in Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho the same night and the results were so decisive that Sanders headed to Vermont without speaking to the media.

The coronavirus outbreak essentially froze the campaign, preventing Sanders from holding the large rallies that had become his trademark and shifting the primary calendar. It became increasingly unclear where he could notch a victory that would help him regain ground against Biden.

Though he will not be the nominee, Sanders was a key architect of many of the social policies that dominated the Democratic primary, including a “Medicare for All” universal, government-funded health care plan, tuition-free public college, a $15 minimum wage and sweeping efforts to fight climate change under the “Green New Deal.”

He relished the fact that his ideas — viewed as radical four years ago— had become part of the political mainstream by the next election cycle, as Democratic politics lurched to the left in the Trump era.

Sanders began the 2020 race by arguing that he was the most electable Democrat against Trump. He said his working-class appeal could help Democrats win back Rust Belt states that Trump won in 2016, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. But as the race wore on, the senator reverted to his 2016 roots, repeatedly stressing that he backs a “political revolution” from the bottom up under the slogan “Not me. Us.”

Sanders also faced persistent questions about being the field’s oldest candidate. Those were pushed into the spotlight on Oct. 1, when he was at a rally in Las Vegas and asked for a chair to be brought on stage so he could sit down. Suffering from chest pains afterward, he underwent surgery to insert two stints because of a blocked artery, and his campaign revealed two days later that he had suffered a heart attack.

But a serious health scare that might have derailed other campaigns seemed only to help Sanders as his already-strong fundraising got stronger and rising stars on the Democratic left, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, endorsed him. Many supporters said the heart attack only strengthened their resolve to back him.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren outshone him throughout much of the summer, but Sanders worked his way back up in the polls. The two progressive candidates spent months refusing to attack each other, though Sanders offered a strong defense of Medicare for All after Warren offered a transition plan saying it would take the country years to transition to it.

The two longtime allies finally clashed bitterly, if briefly, in January, when Warren said that Sanders had suggested during a 2018 private meeting that a woman couldn’t be elected president. Sanders denied saying that, but Warren refused to shake his outstretched hand after a debate in Iowa.

Warren left the race after a dismal Super Tuesday showing in which she finished third in her own state.

In 2016, Sanders kept campaigning long after the primaries had ended and endorsed Clinton less than two weeks before their party’s convention. This cycle, he promised to work better with the national and state parties. His dropping out of the race now could be a step toward unity.

In an email and video posted to Twitter on Thursday, Gabbard offered her full support to former Vice President Joe Biden, saying “it’s clear that Democratic primary voters have chosen” him to take on President Donald Trump in November.

Noting their political differences, Gabbard said she respected Biden and had confidence in the motivations of his campaign effort.

“Although I may not agree with the vice president on every issue, I know that he has a good heart, and he’s motivated by his love for our country and the American people,” Gabbard said. “I’m confident that he will lead our country, guided by the spirit of aloha respect and compassion, and thus help heal the divisiveness that has been tearing our country apart.”

As the coronavirus outbreak continues, Gabbard, a military veteran and a major in the Army National Guard, said she would focus on her continued service, including military experience, should it be needed.

“I feel that the best way I can be of service at this time is to continue to work for the health and wellbeing of the people of Hawaii and our country in Congress, and to stand ready to serve in uniform should the Hawaii National Guard be activated,” said Gabbard, who served two tours of duty in the Middle East.

During her candidacy, Gabbard appeared often on Fox News Channel and angered fellow Democrats by voting “present” on the articles of impeachment against Trump.

Gabbard attracted a sizable following in New Hampshire, where she frequently campaigned ahead of the state’s February primary. Some past supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the state warmed to her campaign over time, and she espoused a similar outsider approach to Sanders’ 2016 run, which Gabbard supported.

She was also part of what once was a historically diverse Democratic field. The 38-year-old American Samoan’s campaign website described her as “the first Hindu to run for president and first practicing Hindu in Congress.” And as one of the youngest candidates in the field, Gabbard outlasted senators and governors who came into the large Democratic primary race with higher profiles.

Although she failed to qualify for any stage past the fifth debate, in November, Gabbard was awarded two delegates once voting began, according to The Associated Press’ count, both in the March 2 contest in her native American Samoa.

Yet Gabbard’s 2020 campaign was also quick to attract questions from voters. The Hawaii congresswoman has faced backlash for her 2017 meeting in Syria with Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose government has been accused of chemical weapons attacks against its own citizens.

And with a primary challenge looming, she announced in October she would not run for reelection to her Hawaii congressional seat. Gabbard’s decision became public shortly after a public feud with Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. In a podcast interview, Clinton appeared to call her “the favorite of the Russians” and said she believed Republicans have “got their eye on somebody who’s currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate.”

Gabbard responded by calling Clinton the “personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long.” In January, she filed a defamation lawsuit against Clinton, saying Clinton’s comments were based on either her own imagination or “extremely dubious conspiracy theories” that any reasonable person would know to be “inherently and objectively unreliable.”

Asked to comment on the lawsuit, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said, “That’s ridiculous.”

As most of her Democratic House colleagues voted to impeach Trump in December, Gabbard chose to vote present on the two articles of impeachment. Former Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie called for Gabbard to resign over the vote and said she wasn’t doing her job representing Hawaii.

“Look, I did not take the easy vote,” Gabbard said after returning to the campaign trail. “I took the vote that I felt was in the best interest of our country and standing in the center to be able to bring the country together, to be able to begin this reconciliation that I think is so necessary in this terribly divided moment in our country.”

Questions over whether Gabbard would mount a third-party run in November’s general election continued following her feud with Clinton. Even as she was questioned for her present vote on the impeachment articles, Gabbard maintained that a third-party campaign was not something she was considering.

“Absolutely not,” Gabbard said in December 2019. “It’s not going to change. My decision won’t change, no matter how many times people say it, no matter how many times I get asked the question, it’s not changing. I’m running to be the Democratic nominee.”

On Wednesday, Sanders’ campaign manager said Sanders “is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign.” But he suggested Sanders is in no hurry to make any decisions about leaving the race noting, “the next primary contest is at least three weeks away.”

Faiz Shakir said in a statement that “in the immediate term” Sanders “is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable.”

Biden’s third big night in as many weeks came Tuesday amid tremendous uncertainty as the Democratic contest collides with efforts to slow the spread of the virus that has shut down large swaths of American life. Polls were shuttered in Ohio, and although balloting went ahead as scheduled in the three other states, election workers and voters reported problems.

Still, Biden’s quest for his party’s nomination now seems well within reach. His trio of wins doubled his delegate haul over Sanders, giving the former vice president a nearly insurmountable lead. Top Democratic leaders and donors have also increasingly lined up behind Biden as the best option to square off against President Donald Trump in November.

Using a livestream to address supporters from his home state of Delaware, Biden seemed ready to move past the primary. He paid tribute to the Vermont senator for advancing key issues like affordable health care and combating climate change.

“Sen. Sanders and his supporters have brought a remarkable passion and tenacity to all of these issues. Together they have shifted the fundamental conversation in this country,” Biden said. “So let me say, especially to the young voters who have been inspired by Sen. Sanders, I hear you. I know what����ap at stake. I know what we have to do.”

With the exception of North Dakota and the Northern Mariana Islands, Sanders hasn’t scored a victory since Super Tuesday on March 3. He made no immediate move on Tuesday to contact Biden, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the candidates. During remarks early in the night, Sanders said little about the future of the race and instead focused on the coronavirus outbreak.

Trump, meanwhile, formally clinched the Republican presidential nomination after facing minimal opposition.

But much of the action was on the Democratic side, where higher vote totals in some key states suggested enthusiasm that even the coronavirus couldn’t contain. Turnout in Florida’s Democratic primary surpassed the 1.7 million who cast ballots four years ago.

Sanders’ path to the nomination is quickly narrowing, and some Democrats are now calling on him to drop out in the name of party unity. Top advisers have said he’s considering whether the political landscape could look different as the virus continues to reshape life across the country.

Still, the race increasingly favors Biden. He maintained strength on Tuesday with African Americans and older voters who have been the hallmark of his campaign. He also appeared to chip away at Sanders’ previous advantage with Hispanics that helped him win Nevada and California early in the race.

In Florida, Latinos made up roughly 20% of Democratic primary voters, and they largely sided with Biden. The former vice president received the support of 62% of Puerto Rican voters and 57% of Cubans, according to AP VoteCast, a broad survey of primary voters.

The public health and economic havoc wreaked by the coronavirus will nonetheless influence how the presidential contest unfolds. Rallies and other big events have been canceled. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez urged states with upcoming primaries to expand vote-by-mail and absentee balloting, as well as polling station hours — trying to ensure the primary isn’t further hampered going forward.

“The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy, and we must do everything we can to protect and expand that right instead of bringing our democratic process to a halt,” Perez said in a statement.

But the damage may have already happened.

Four states — Louisiana, Georgia, Kentucky and Maryland — have joined Ohio in moving to push back their upcoming primaries, and others may yet do so. That has left the Democratic primary calendar empty until March 29, when Puerto Rico is scheduled to go to the polls. But island leaders are working to reschedule balloting there, too.

That means there is nowhere for Sanders to gain ground on Biden anytime soon, even if he could find a way to mount a sudden surge.

At least one of Sanders’ top advisers chided party officials for going forward with voting on Tuesday.

“The Democratic Party rightly berates the GOP for ignoring scientists’ warnings about climate change,” David Sirota tweeted. “The same Dem Party just ignored scientists’ warnings & pushed to continue in-person elections during a lethal pandemic, rather than delaying until there is vote by mail.”

There were problems across the country on Tuesday. In Illinois, for instance, there was a push to relocate about 50 Chicago-area polling places after locations canceled at the last minute.

Jim Allen, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, said the board asked Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week to cancel in-person voting, but the governor refused. Pritzker countered that state law doesn’t give him the authority to make the sweeping changes that elections officials wanted.

“Let me tell you this: It is exactly in times like these when the constitutional boundaries of our democracy should be respected above all else. And if people want to criticize me for that, well, go ahead,” the governor said.

There weren’t problems, everywhere, though. Mel Dockens, a 49-year-old small-business owner, voted in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale and said it was a tough choice. But he went for Biden because he thought Sanders’ progressive views might turn off some Democratic voters.

“It����ap all about electability,” Dockens said. “It����ap not that I don’t trust Bernie Sanders, but I trust (Biden) a little more.”

Fresh off a string of resounding primary victories, Joe Biden is now well ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination — and curiosity about Biden’s preferences on a running mate is intensifying.

Biden fueled even greater interest in that subject on Sunday, when for the first time he pledged to pick a female running mate should he win the Democratic nomination.

But Biden, himself a former vice president, has also made clear that he has a detailed set of criteria, requirements that go well beyond biographical or geographical considerations.

And while Biden is certainly not yet the nominee — he faces Sanders in primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio on Tuesday — he has engaged on the subject in depth throughout the campaign, having fielded questions about a running mate from voters and journalists alike for months.

Here is a guide to how Biden discusses what is poised to become one of the most closely watched matters of the campaign to come: the veepstakes.

The most important factor: A running mate with whom he is “simpatico.”

While Biden often says it is “presumptuous” to discuss a running mate, he has something of a routine down when asked about it.

He will discuss the strong working relationship he had with President Barack Obama, and say that he is looking for a running mate with whom he is similarly “simpatico” on key issues — and for someone who could be entrusted with presidential authority.

“I’m going to pick someone who is simpatico with me philosophically,” he said in August. “Agrees with me. Now if you’re not, that����ap OK, I have great respect. But you’ve got to be able to turn and say to your vice president, ‘This is your responsibility.’ Because the job is too big anymore for any one man or woman.”

And in an interview on “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC last Monday, he added more texture: “Someone who is simpatico with where I want to take the country. We can disagree on tactic but not on strategy. And so, that����ap the first test. And there are a number of women and African Americans as well who would meet that criteria for me.”

The former vice president cares about experience in a running mate.

Biden often suggests on the campaign trail that the presidency is no place for on-the-job training — and he has signaled that he greatly values experience in a running mate, too.

In the past, some nominees have tapped vice-presidential candidates who were untested on the national stage as part of an effort to shore up a political vulnerability. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain, for instance, picked Sarah Palin, then the governor of Alaska, in an effort to appeal to conservatives — but she often stumbled in the spotlight, creating problems for his team.

Biden seems leery of that approach, though he has indicated that he would find a range of backgrounds to be useful, from presidential primary debate-stage experience to resumes forged at both the state and national level.

Age is also a factor, the 77-year-old Biden has said.

“One, that they are younger than I am,” he said in Hudson, New Hampshire, last month, “And No. 2, that they are ready on Day 1 to be president of the United States of America.”

“There has to be some correlation between their views and mine,” he added at that stop. He said that someone who “insisted that we do ‘Medicare for all’” would present “a real problem.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren championed Medicare for all last summer and fall, but then pivoted and proposed waiting as long as three years to seek passage of the legislation.

The coronavirus could become a new factor — here’s how.

At his best, his allies say, Biden is a steady, seasoned hand ready to lead in a tumultuous time. It is a message he and his supporters have increasingly stressed as the country grapples with the coronavirus outbreak — and Biden appears unlikely to undermine that point with a vice-presidential choice that could be perceived as risky or gimmicky.

His running-mate pick would be seen through the lens of a public health crisis, arguing against selecting someone who is untested in the face of potential catastrophe. Given Biden’s emphasis on electing a president who does not require on-the-job training, he seems inclined to apply that standard to a running-mate as well.

Here are some of the possible candidates he has mentioned.

Biden has mentioned by name, or alluded to, a long list of potential running mates that includes many of his former rivals.

During an interview with NBC News last week, he proactively mentioned Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

A day after Sen. Kamala Harris dropped out, Biden said: “She can be the president one day herself. She can be the vice president. She can go on to be a Supreme Court justice.” He has expressed openness to Warren, though more recently he emphasized her value in the Senate.

And in November, he alluded to several women outside of Washington, without explicitly naming them: Sally Q. Yates, the acting attorney general who was fired by President Donald Trump early in his term; Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia House minority leader and 2018 nominee for governor; and Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.

Other names generating chatter include Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Rep. Val Demings of Florida.

Rep. James E. Clyburn, the South Carolina Democrat who played an influential role in reviving Biden’s once-flagging campaign, said in an interview with Axios on HBO that he preferred that Biden select an African-American woman for the ticket.

“I promise you,” Biden said during the MSNBC interview, “My administration, from vice president on, is going to look like the country.”