10 days that reshaped the Democratic presidential race [View all]

(CNN)As the returns rolled in on Super Tuesday, Joe Biden's aides were flabbergasted.

Huddled at their headquarters in Philadelphia and snacking on candy carted in from the nearby "Nuts to You," Biden's campaign was braced for a long night of election results, according to a senior member of the campaign staff.

The team was cautiously optimistic after a resounding victory in South Carolina and a subsequent consolidation of the moderate wing of the party behind the former vice president. But their goals were still modest: Run up the margin as much as possible in most of the Southern states, and stay competitive in Texas and California.

Not only was the campaign meeting those goals, it was notching victories in places where resources had been withdrawn and field staff had been redeployed, like Massachusetts and Minnesota, and later Maine. There was no television in the conference room where Biden's senior aides were holding the hourly meeting. But with each win, a loud cheer would erupt from the aides in the press area and at the front of the office, interrupting the meeting as everyone ran to the television screens to catch the latest victory.

Just a few days earlier, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was the race's undisputed front-runner. Biden's campaign appeared ill-equipped to pull off the comeback necessary to win. The fractured field of six top candidates seemed poised to split delegates on Super Tuesday, setting up the possibility of a contested convention.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/14/politics/2020-election-democratic-primary/index.html