On this Super Tuesday, Joe Biden is showing early momentum tonight,

with projected wins in Virginia, and North Carolina.

And Bernie Sanders takes his home state of Vermont, with many more states still to come.

Then, As the death toll from coronavirus in the U.S. continues to

climb, the Federal Reserve reacts with the most significant emergency action since the

financial collapse.

Then: We are on the ground all across the country, bringing you the latest Democratic

primary updates, as ballots are cast on Super Tuesday.

Plus, an epicenter of the outbreak -- a report from Iran, where cases of COVID-19 are skyrocketing,

and distrust of leaders mounts, as government officials come down with the virus.

AMIR PARVANDAR, Retiree (through translator): This is the result of the chronic weakness

of the management of our country.

When you lose people's trust, even when you tell the truth, people won't believe you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."

(BREAK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: On this Super Tuesday, it is just after 9:00 p.m. on the East Coast, and

the polls in 12 of the 14 states voting today are now closed.

And with a third of all Democratic delegates up for grabs, today is the biggest voting

day of the primary season.

Here are the results so far.

Joe Biden, the projected winner in Virginia, in North Carolina, and in Alabama.

Bernie Sanders, projected winner in his home state of Vermont and just moments ago in the

state of Colorado.

We do not yet have projected winners in these following states, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma,

Tennessee, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Texas.

And, again, all the polls have closed in those states, but we're waiting for the results

to come in.

We have much more to look for this evening.

But, as of right now, Joe Biden has for the first time taken the lead in the all-important

delegate count.

We do have a host of "NewsHour" correspondents and public media reporters who are spread

out in Super Tuesday states across the country, from California, to Minnesota, to North Carolina,

Massachusetts, and Virginia.

But we start with Texas.

It is the second biggest delegate prize of the night, 228 delegates at stake.

And that's where "NewsHour"s political reporter, Dan Bush, is now.

And he joins me from Houston.

So, Dan, clearly, the polls just closing there.

We don't have a call yet, but this is a state where Bernie Sanders had been doing well.

Mike Bloomberg had put some money in.

It's also the state where Joe Biden had some very big endorsements last night.

DANIEL BUSH: That's right, Judy.

Biden is surging here, seemingly.

And, yes, we don't have results yet.

It's a big state, some of the biggest cities in the country.

It will take a while.

Texans are used to that.

It might be a long night here.

But, already, Democrats here in the state are saying that they're breathing a sigh of

relief, as one source told me.

These are moderate Democrats who see a very good night cropping up for Joe Biden elsewhere.

A senior Biden official just told me that, looking at these other states, two things

are clear, the Biden campaign is arguing.

Number one, Mike Bloomberg invested a lot of money in states like North Carolina and

Virginia, might not win delegates there.

And, number two, the Biden campaign says, Bernie Sanders' electability argument is not

holding up.

Now, here in Texas, we're going to have to wait and see.

As you said, two of the biggest delegate prizes are still up for grabs, Texas and California.

Biden is doing well here.

Sanders has made a lot of inroads here, Judy, in recent weeks, especially with Latino voters.

So we're waiting to see how those sort of key voting groups play out here in Texas.

And one more thing, Judy.

The Bloomberg campaign is saying, wait a second, let's slow down a little bit.

One senior adviser texted me, said: "Nothing surprising here so far."

But they invested a lot of money in Texas.

So, they may not have won the other states.

They do need to do well here, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And you're right.

They did invest a lot of money there, as they have in a number of other states, Texas a

state that we don't expect to have an early projection in, but we will see.

Dan Bush, thanks very much, joining us from Houston.

And now, from Minneapolis, Mary Lahammer of Twin Cities PBS.

Mary, this is Amy Klobuchar's home state, but it's a state that she knew she was going

to have a tough time in.

You have been talking to voters in the last hours who are big supporters of Bernie Sanders.

Tell us about that.

MARY LAHAMMER, Twin Cities PBS: Yes, I talked to three different Sanders voters.

And two of them are young men.

And they both said the issue that they are backing Sanders on is Medicare for all, and,

also, they want a change in politics.

They said they didn't want to go back, and I think perceive Biden as going back to politics

as usual, old Washington.

They want change.

And they said Trump changed everything, and Bernie works to that change.

Now, that is also borne out in some of the early exit polls.

The Associated Press is showing the number one issue in Minnesota is health care.

And the number two issue is the environment.

So, that definitely is in line with some of those younger Bernie voters who are feeling

the Bern.

Now, the interesting thing, this third Sanders voter I talked to is a Republican.

It was a Republican who was going to vote for Amy Klobuchar, didn't think he was going

to vote, at the last minute, decided to jump in the Democratic presidential primary here

in order to create mischief.

He said he voted for Sanders because he thinks that's the best for Trump and the worst for

Democrats.

He doesn't think that will help Democrats down-ballot here.

So a lot of interesting things happening with the Sanders voters, as we're waiting for our

results to come in here pretty soon.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, just quickly, Mary, you were telling us that health care, big issue

for the voters there in Minnesota?

MARY LAHAMMER: Absolutely.

We are home to many, many large medical companies.

We have the world famous Mayo Clinic, one of the largest medical institutions in the

world, and also things like Medtronic, one of the largest medical device companies.

So, definitely, health care is an issue that voters not just care about, but are really

smart and are educated.

And it pays their paychecks around here.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All right, Mary Lahammer reporting for us, Twin Cities PBS in Minneapolis, Minnesota,

tonight.

And we are able to share a projection now.

And that is, in the state of Oklahoma, Joe Biden projected by the Associated Press to

pick up that state.

That would make, by my count, four states where Biden has been projected to win, in

Virginia, in North Carolina, in Alabama, and now in the state of Oklahoma.

So, we will continue to look as the numbers come in from there.

In the meantime, let's skip over to Virginia, where our Lisa Desjardins has spent the day.

This is a state that was called, as we said, for Joe Biden just as the polls closed at

7:00.

Lisa, this is a big win for the senator.

It was a state that Bloomberg was contesting.

And you have got some -- you're trying to get some sense of why it went so big for Biden.

LISA DESJARDINS: We have a lot of sense of that.

One reason, Judy, is the area I'm standing in.

This is Alexandria.

This is Northern Virginia.

This is the most blue part of Virginia.

And this area saw huge turnout, Judy.

And it looks like a lot of that turnout went for Joe Biden.

Also, Judy, in the last day, we know those who made the decision just in the last day,

overwhelmingly, some 54 percent, according to voter surveys, went for Joe Biden.

That's 40 points more than any other candidate in the last few days.

That is the effect of South Carolina and, of course, the endorsements we have seen Pete

Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar over the last few days.

But I also want to drill down on another topic that's important to Democrats: race.

Let's look at how voters in Virginia, when they identified their race, how they voted.

If you look at first black voters, some 54 percent of them voted for Joe Biden.

We saw, of course, that strength in South Carolina, but he also won with white voters,

with 40 percent of them voting for Joe Biden.

So this is a sign, the Biden camp is saying, that he can reach across different parts of

the core Democratic base.

And, Judy, I just was speaking to the Biden campaign.

And similar to what Dan Bush is reporting, they say that the win in Virginia is important.

It shows Biden can win in a swing state, and they're questioning whether Bernie Sanders

can do that as well.

Clearly, they see it as a matchup between those two men.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Interesting, so much -- and so interesting in Virginia, Lisa, that late-deciders,

who made up a big chunk of the electorate in Virginia, went very heavily for Joe Biden.

Sorry about the wind.

It looks like we may -- do we have you?

Lisa Desjardins, are you there?

(LAUGHTER)

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

We're still here.

JUDY WOODRUFF: OK, we will come back to you, Lisa.

LISA DESJARDINS: It was very dramatic, wasn't it?

JUDY WOODRUFF: It looks like it's raining and windy, and we're going to let her pull

all that together and come back.

Meantime, let's skip one state south of where Lisa is, from Virginia down to North Carolina,

where Yamiche Alcindor spent a number of days.

She's got more on Vice President Joe Biden's victory there.

Yamiche, this was another early call.

As soon as the polls closed in North Carolina, the projection was made that Biden would win.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right, Judy.

And North Carolina is seen as a crucial state when it comes to candidates and electability.

While it has the third most delegates there, with about -- with 110 delegates, what you

see is in this state Democrats really wanting to wrestle it back from Republicans.

So, in 2020, in November, that's when Democrats are really going to be trying to put in work

to try to wrestle it back from Republicans, who won it in 2016, with President Trump winning

this state by about 3 percent.

But looking at who -- what voters cared about, Joe Biden -- if we can put it up for viewers,

Joe Biden won something like 46 percent of people who describe themselves as moderates

here.

Mike Bloomberg won about 17 percent, Bernie Sanders 16 percent, Elizabeth Warren, who

was seen as someone who was really struggling in this rate, at 8 percent, and Pete Buttigieg,

who, of course, dropped out, got 6 percent.

It's also important to note that voters here, as they did, apparently, in Minnesota, in

other parts of the state -- in other parts of the country, rather, they said that health

care was their number one issue.

And when you look at voters who thought health care was the most important issue, Joe Biden

was the one who won those voters.

Also, if you looked at voters who were thinking about race relations as their top issue, he

also won those voters.

And if you are a voter who was deciding late, guess what?

You also went for Joe Biden.

So, the Joe Biden campaign is saying, look, not only is North Carolina a good win for

us.

It also shows that we are the most electable candidate and we're the candidate who can

beat Donald Trump.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, very quickly, Yamiche -- and sorry about that interruption a minute

ago while you were talking.

But looking at the survey of voters as they went to the polls in North Carolina, health

care far and away their most important issue.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right, Judy.

And it's an interesting issue, because Democrats and Republicans have really been fighting

over the issue of health care.

Now, Bernie Sanders has been pushing Medicare for all.

He's been saying, I wrote the blank bill.

And he's been saying, I'm the one who came up with that idea.

But Joe Biden has said, hold on, wait a minute.

The Affordable Care Act was something that I knew about very intricately as vice president

to President Obama, and I know how to tweak it to be able to make it so that health care

is better for voters across this country.

And in North Carolina, voters who thought health care should be tweaked, rather than

completely upended, meant that they wanted to go for Joe Biden.

And, as a result, voters who cared most about health care voted for Joe Biden in large numbers.