A resurgent Joe Biden seized the momentum in the race to become the Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump with a string of Super Tuesday victories, including key prize Texas, against rival Bernie Sanders. Sanders, a 78-year-old leftist who wants to reshape America’s economy, had been the clear leader and was looking for a knock-out blow on the most consequential voting day on the primary calendar.

Instead, the results signalled a remarkable comeback for Biden, a former vice president under Barack Obama who was projected to win at least nine, and possibly 10, of the nomination contests held across 14 states. Just one week ago the 77- year-old senior statesman saw his campaign teeter on the edge of collapse. Now he is vying once again for frontrunner status. “It’s a good night and it seems to be getting even better! They don’t call it Super Tuesday for nothing,” Biden told cheering fans in Los Angeles.

Sanders, self-described democratic socialist, was projected to win his home state of Vermont, Colorado and Utah. He was also ahead in California, the biggest delegate-rich state of all, with a nine-point lead as the count continued on Wednesday morning. The centrist Biden was projected to win in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Massachusetts and even Minnesota—a state where Sanders had been expected to win handily.