Ohio governor fights to cancel primary Welcome to the Maclean's Politics Insider: America 2020, launched for readers who crave U.S. political news during primary season. If you want to receive this new newsletter, take no action, it will arrive in your inbox every weekday at noon. If you'd rather not receive it, please unsubscribe here. How to delay a primary: On Monday, when even President Trump admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic might change daily life for a long time, states were increasingly looking for ways to delay their primaries or move them to a vote-by-mail format. Kentucky announced that it would move its primary from May to June, but the big announcement was from Ohio, scheduled to be one of the states voting today. Republican Governor Mike DeWine made a statement that in-person voting should be moved to June, saying, "We can't tell people it's in their best interest to stay home and at the same time tell people to go vote." Ohio defies court on primary delay: The Ohio announcement was also a lesson in the confusing limits of executive power in the U.S.: some state governments have the power to unilaterally move election dates, but Gov. DeWine and his Secretary of State Frank LaRose don't have that power in Ohio. Instead they joined a lawsuit seeking to delay the election on the grounds that holding it now would disenfranchise people by making them unable to vote. The lawsuit went before a judge who denied the request, "especially since state officials couldn’t say June would be any safer, and since many voters had expected the election would be on Tuesday." DeWine then used his power as Governor to declare a "health emergency" and close the polls for that reason, while seeking a court ruling that would allow them to officially postpone the voting deadline. Why Sanders may fight on: Whenever the primaries finally finish, Bernie Sanders won't have a high probability of emerging the winner. Considering the difficulty of holding elections, he may face calls to simply concede the race. But others in his circle want him to stay in, not necessarily because he can win, but because he needs to hold Joe Biden accountable and make sure he doesn't sell out progressives. That may explain why Sanders was more willing than usual to attack Biden's past voting record during the last Democratic debate — much to the displeasure of Biden's team: Some Biden backers were caught off guard when Mr. Sanders spent much of Sunday’s debate criticizing Mr. Biden’s long record, which revived their broader frustrations with some of Mr. Sanders’s surrogates who have slashed Mr. Biden in more starkly personal terms... Anita Dunn, Mr. Biden’s chief strategist, compared Mr. Sanders to a political demonstrator, telling reporters that the former vice president had spent the debate “graciously dealing with the kind of protester who often shows up at campaign events, on live television.” Biden wins Washington: Last Tuesday seems like a lifetime ago, but one of the primary contests held that day has only just been finalized: in Washington state, the winner of the Democratic primary is Joe Biden, who was finally certified with 37.9 percent of the vote, compared to 36.4 for Bernie Sanders. The two politicians emerged with the same number of delegates, but Sanders' results show a decline from 2016, when he beat Hillary Clinton in the state caucuses (which no longer exist). Clinton, however, won Washington's primary that year — the last time the state held both primaries and caucuses — which may suggest that Sanders does better in the caucus format. — Jaime Weinman | 