Biden wins Washington state

WASHINGTON DC: Joe Biden has been declared the winner of last week’s Democratic presidential primary in Washington state, giving him victories in five out of six states that voted last Tuesday.

After nearly a week of counting votes, the former vice president on Monday morning held a small lead over Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, which later in the day became insurmountable.

Washington was a state Sanders had been hoping to win. In 2016, he won more than two-thirds of the delegates from the Washington caucuses over Hillary Clinton.

Biden won four other states last Tuesday: Missouri, Mississippi, Michigan and Idaho. Sanders won North Dakota.

In Washington, Democrats used the vote-by-mail presidential primary - moved up this year from May - for the first time to allocate delegates instead of the smaller caucuses used in previous years.