Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has suggested he would support delaying the holding of primaries due to the coronavirus crisis, CNN reported.
When asked by CNN's Anderson Cooper whether the primaries scheduled for Tuesday in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio should be postponed, Sanders said, "I would hope that governors listen to the public health experts, and what they are saying: 'We don't want gatherings of more than 50 people.'
"I'm thinking about some of the elderly people sitting behind the desks, registering people, doing all that stuff. Does that make a lot of sense? I'm not sure that it does."
Louisiana, Georgia, and Puerto Rico, which all had primaries scheduled in the near future, have announced they are delaying their elections, The Hill reported.
Sanders trails frontrunner Joe Biden in the delegate count after the former vice president scored decisive victories in many states in recently held primaries.
Sanders acknowledged, "election dates are very, very important – we don't want to be getting into the habit of messing around with them."
But he also pointed out, there are historical precedents for it. For example, he said there was a primary scheduled in New York City on September 11, 2001 that was delayed due to the attacks and was held a few weeks later.