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.

The former vice president has put together broad coalitions of Democratic primary voters: African Americans, white college-educated suburbanites, city dwellers of all demographics, rural and small-town voters who haven’t yet defected to Republicans (or who might be returning from the GOP).

Even on the issue of health care, the cornerstone of his campaign, Sanders is losing. Florida Democrats thought Biden would be better than Sanders on health care by a significant margin, according to AP VoteCast surveys of the electorate. Voters in Arizona and Illinois were about evenly divided between the two candidates on health care.