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| - Former US vice president Joe Biden, reenergized by endorsements from three moderate former rivals, was looking to stall the momentum of frontrunner Bernie Sanders on Tuesday as Democrats voted in 14 states for a candidate to face Donald Trump in November. Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren were also on the ballot as voters from Maine to California trooped to the polls for the Super Tuesday primaries. "I'm feeling really good," the 77-year-old Biden said during a brief stop at the Buttercup Diner in Oakland, California. The 78-year-old Sanders cast his ballot at a polling station in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont. "To beat Donald Trump, we are going to need to have the largest voter turnout in the history of this country," the left-wing senator said. "We need energy. We need excitement. I think our campaign is that campaign." Two new polls had Biden surging nationally past Sanders, who earned the most votes in the first three nominating contests before the former vice president's landslide win in South Carolina on Saturday. Thirty-six percent of the respondents in a Morning Consult poll of 961 Democratic primary voters said they supported Biden while 28 percent went for Sanders, 19 percent for Bloomberg and 14 percent for Warren. A Hill/HarrisX daily poll of 1,032 registered voters had Biden at 28 percent support, Sanders at 23 percent, Bloomberg at 20 percent and Warren at 11 percent. Bloomberg, 78, who has poured hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money into the race but is not expected to win any states on Tuesday, rejected calls to quit to clear a path for fellow centrist Biden. "I have no intention of dropping out," the billionaire told reporters in Florida. "We're in it to win it." After disappointing finishes in the first three contests, Biden righted his listing campaign in South Carolina and is hoping the energy from that victory carries over into Super Tuesday. A total of 1,357 delegates are at stake on Tuesday, and Biden needs a good performance to prevent Sanders from taking a potentially insurmountable lead into the party convention to be held in Milwaukee in July. A candidate needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination outright and Bloomberg acknowledged his only hope may be a contested convention, where no single candidate arrives with the delegates needed to win on the first ballot. Trump weighed in on the Democratic race on Tuesday, saying: "The Democrat establishment is trying to take it away from Bernie Sanders." "Two or three days ago, Biden was not looking too good," Trump said. "Now he's looking better." Asked who he would like to face, Trump said: "Anybody." Biden's chances received a major boost on Monday when he received the endorsements of three of his defeated rivals for the nomination -- Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O'Rourke. The Democratic establishment wants to unite around a centrist candidate who can triumph over Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist whom they see as too far to the left to represent the party against Trump. Buttigieg, 38, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said he was backing Biden because he will "draw out what is best in each of us." Biden, who is making his third bid for the White House after failed runs in 1988 and 2008, appeared reinvigorated by the support and emotionally compared Buttigieg to his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015. "The fact that he's prepared to help me means a great deal to me," Biden said. "I don't think I've ever done this before, but he reminds me of my son Beau. "I know that may not mean much to most people but to me it's the highest compliment I can give any man or woman." Biden also sought to warn voters away from Sanders, who has called for a "political revolution" in America. "Most Americans don't want the promise of a revolution," Biden said. "They want results. They want a revival of decency, honor and character." Biden also made appearances with Klobuchar, the Minnesota senator, and O'Rourke, who dropped out early in the race but remains popular in Texas, the state with the largest delegate haul on Tuesday after California. The trio of endorsements could be political gold for Biden, who is suddenly the main challenger to Sanders and claims his strength with African-Americans, Hispanics, women and suburbanites makes him Trump's toughest opponent. "I did vote for Biden because Trump has to be beaten," 75-year-old Cindy Eleanor said at a polling station outside Los Angeles. "Bernie is not mainstream for the bulk of Americans -- he never has been." Another California voter, Brian Waters, 43, a former English teacher who is now a brewer, said he voted for Sanders because of his position on universal health care. "I'd vote for a burning dumpster over Trump," he said. cl/sst
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