WASHINGTON — It was the biggest night of Joe Biden's half-century in politics. Bernie Sanders fell short but notched up some valuable victories to make it a two-person race. Elizabeth Warren lost her home state and Mike Bloomberg went bust on a half-a-billion dollar bet.

The South Carolina victory, the consolidation of moderate rivals and even the fear of the coronavirus propelled the former vice president to victories in a majority of the 14 states that voted Tuesday, from New England to the South to the Midwest. He won Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Alabama Arkansas, Minnesota and Texas.

Sanders won Colorado, Utah and Vermont. Maine and California were still too close to call.

As of Wednesday morning, Biden led with 453 delegates, while Sanders had 373; Warren was miles behind with 39 and Bloomberg had 18, according to NBC News projections.

Click here for seven takeaways from a big day of voting:

And he didn't stop there. 

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's unprecedented spending threatened to shake up the Democratic presidential race, but as the dust continues to settle, he appears to have little to show for it. 

Bloomberg dropped about $198 million in television and radio ads in states that held their nominating contests on Super Tuesday, according to ad-tracking firm Advertising Analytics. And as of 10 a.m. ET, Bloomberg has netted just 18 delegates — $11 million per delegate so far with results still coming in.  

That showing led to Bloomberg dropping on Wednesday morning, arguing that "after yesterday’s results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible — and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists."

Bloomberg's dollar-for-delegate tradeoff has been massive, but that investment is magnified when compared to how many delegates Biden is poised to win in states where he spent markedly less. 

Despite not spending a dime on the air in Massachusetts, Biden is projected to win the state. Bloomberg, who spent almost $10 million there on those ads, is at 12 percent with 95 percent of precincts reporting. 

In Texas, Bloomberg spent $52 million on TV and radio ads and appears to be poised for a distant third-place finish. Biden is the projected winner there, having spent about $463,000 on those ads.

Overall, Bloomberg spent just over $112 million on the airwaves in the Super Tuesday states that the NBC News' Decision Desk projects Biden will win. Biden spent $1.4 million on the airwaves in those states he's projected to win. 

So far, Biden is projected to net 400 delegates on Super Tuesday alone.

Bernie Sanders launched three new ads on Wednesday in nine states targeting former Vice President Joe Biden as the race rapidly narrowed following Biden's Super Tuesday victories. 

One of the ads, "Feel the Bern," focuses on past comments then-President Barack Obama made about Sanders, complimenting him for being authentic and someone who has gotten bills passed for veterans. It's a new kind of ad for Sanders, as his campaign typically likes to draw on Sanders being an outsider, rather than a deal-maker. 

Biden has consistently run his own TV and digital ads that show Obama complimenting him and granting him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And the Biden team is responding to Sanders' use of Obama, saying that Obama "chose" Biden, while Sanders considered a primary challenge against him.

"Barack Obama chose Vice President Biden to be his partner over 8 years in the White House, entrusting him with managing the stimulus that saved our economy from a depression, obtaining the deciding vote for the Affordable Care Act, and countless national security priorities," Biden campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates said. "By contrast, Senator Sanders explored a primary challenge to President Obama, who he compared to a 'moderate Republican' and said was not a 'progressive.' As recent history has proven, no quantity of ads can rewrite history — and there's no substitute for genuinely having the back of the best president of our lifetimes." 

The Biden team is also re-upping an ad they ran against Sanders in South Carolina that focused on Sanders' consideration of a primary challenge. 

Sanders' two other ads, "Protect Social Security" and "Decimated," take direct aim at Biden's past votes.

The ads call out Biden for comments he made about freezing federal spending, which would have included Social Security benefits for a limited time, and for supporting trade deals, like NAFTA, that Sanders opposed. 

Sanders and Biden have traded barbs on Social Security and trade deals before — Sanders is one of the only Democratic presidential candidates who voted against and spoke out against the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. 

The new ads will run in Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Washington — all of which vote on either March 10 or 17. 

Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor who jumped into the 2020 presidential race late and spent over $500 million on an unorthodox campaign, has ended his bid for the Democratic nomination, but vowed to stay in the fight in an attempt to defeat President Donald Trump in November.

“After yesterday’s results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible — and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists," Bloomberg said in a statement. "But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November. Not for me, but for our country. And so while I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life."

Bloomberg said defeating the president means uniting behind the most viable Democratic candidate, which he deemed to be former Vice President Joe Biden.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is assessing her path forward in the Democratic presidential race, an aide to the contender told NBC News on Wednesday morning.

The aide said that Warren is discussing the next steps with her team. 

Warren campaign manager Roger Lau sent an email to staff Wednesday morning, saying they are “disappointed“ and that they’re assessing the path forward. He noted that Warren’s “going to take time right now to think through the right way to continue this fight.” 

Warren did not win any of the Super Tuesday contests, including her own state of Massachusetts, which former Vice President Joe Biden won. 

According to the NBC News delegate count so far in the primary season, Warren has been allotted 39 delegates in total, compared to 453 for Biden and 373 for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

This comes as former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is also reassessing his campaign. 

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said Wednesday that he was "surprised" by former Vice President Joe Biden's wins on Super Tuesday

“I was a bit surprised," Clyburn said in an interview on CNN. "It did go better than many of us expected. [For Biden] to be one point ahead in Maine, no I didn't expect that. [For Biden] to be winning Massachusetts, I did not expect that at all." 

Clyburn is considered to have played a major role in influencing Biden's victory in South Carolina's primary last week after he endorsed the former vice president. 

As of Wednesday morning, Maine was still too close to call, according to NBC News. Clyburn said he "had no idea" what former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg would do after his poor showing on Tuesday, but said Democrats should all coalesce around Biden. 

"I do believe in Joe Biden. He gives us the opportunity to bring this country back to what the founding fathers had in mind and what we've been trying to do, trying to build a more perfect union," Clyburn said. “I think that all of the stuff about him being too touchy, making people uncomfortable, I think it caused him to pull back and not be himself. He is a guy who is very affectionate, is very, well, let's call it compassionate. And I think that that's what had him a little bit robotic going into this campaign.”

Asked where he thinks Biden would be if he had not endorsed him, Clyburn said, "I know what you're trying to get me to say. I'm not gonna say it. Just let me say this, I feel that this country's democracy is at stake."

On MSNBC Tuesday night, longtime Democratic strategist James Carville credited Clyburn with changing the dynamics of the race.

"That guy literally saved the Democratic Party," he said. 

Money can buy you (a lot) of ads, but for Michael Bloomberg, it couldn’t win him states.

The billionaire former New York City mayor’s eye-popping ad spending made headlines in recent weeks, as Bloomberg dropped a whopping $198 million on television and radio ads between Jan. 1 and Tuesday, according to the ad-tracking firm Advertising Analytics.

But despite spending almost five times more cash than the rest of the remaining Democratic field combined, Bloomberg came away with a disappointing night, winning the American Samoa primary and 18 delegates nationwide — approximately $11 million per delegate.

Click here for the breakdown.

We mapped out yesterday morning what we thought might be a super Super Tuesday for Joe Biden. We just didn’t realize how great for him it would actually be.

Biden won nine states (Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia) versus three for Bernie Sanders (Colorado, Utah and Vermont), with two states still not called by NBC News (California and Maine).

More significantly, Biden has won — so far — 87 more delegates than Sanders from yesterday's contests, according to NBC’s Decision Desk. And even when all of the California delegates eventually get allocated, we still believe Biden will emerge as the delegate winner from Super Tuesday.

And here’s why that’s a problem for Sanders: The future contests don’t get any easier for him.

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