After an all out brawl over the weekend at the Nevada Democratic state convention, the fight continued on the primary voting day. On Tuesday, May 17, 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton won the Kentucky primary with a slim lead over rival Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Meanwhile, Sanders, in turn, won Oregon's primary. Sanders won most of the night's delegates up for grabs, but he still trails Clinton by about 280 pledged delegates. However, the largest gap is regarding superdelegates. Clinton has the edge with the party insiders, despite Sanders' loyal following of supporters.
The Associated Press took nearly five hours to call the close Kentucky primary in Clinton's favor after the lead went back and forth between Clinton and Sanders. When Clinton won, it was 46.8 percent to 46.3 percent, based on about a half a percent point and under 2,000 votes.
Clinton announced he win even before it was official. Her campaign took to Twitter writing, "We just won Kentucky! Thanks to everyone who turned out. We're always stronger united." There were 61 delegates up for grabs in Kentucky; they were split equally 27 for Clinton and 27 for Sanders.
Sanders victory in Oregon was more definitive than Clinton's in Kentucky. He won 53.5 percent to Clinton's 46.5 percent when 64 percent of the precincts reported. Within an hour of polls, closing the Associated Press and NBC News was already declaring Sanders, the victor. Sanders will receive 34 delegates in Oregon while Clinton will get 25 delegates; there were 61 delegates up for grabs.
Meanwhile, Sanders spoke to supporters at a rally in Carson, California. Sanders pointed that Clinton's win in Kentucky was hardly a victory, "Where Secretary Clinton defeated Barack Obama by 250,000 votes in 2008, it appears tonight that we're going to end up with about half of the delegates from Kentucky." Sanders also bemoaned that Kentucky was a "closed primary," that prevented his major base independents from voting.
Sanders told his cheering supporters that he thought his campaign would do well in the remaining contests. The Vermont Senator indicated, "No one can predict the future, but I think we have a real shot to win primaries in a number of the states that will be coming up. And don't tell Secretary Clinton because she might get nervous. I think we're going to win here in California."
Sanders was speaking at the rally when the AP declared him the winner in Oregon. Sanders announced it to the crowd that went wild, "We just won Oregon, and we're going to win California. I am getting to like the West Coast." Continuing, Sanders said, "This is the beginning of the final push to win California," the state has 475 delegates up for grabs.
Sanders repeated that he continually does better in general election matchups against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump than Clinton. Sanders selling himself to the voters and the party said, "Whether a national poll or state poll, we do much better beating Donald Trump than Clinton. The Democratic Party wants to be certain that Donald Trump is defeated...we, together, are the campaign to do that."
Clinton did not have much of victory even though she was the formal winner in Kentucky, as Politico indicated Sanders "is a major irritant for Clinton." Clinton wants to focus on general election attacks on Trump but still cannot clinch the nomination. Sanders has vowed to remain the race "until the last ballot is cast." The Vermont is taking his campaign to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.
With less than a month, left in the primary season Clinton has 2,289 delegates, 1,768 pledged delegates, and 521 superdelegates, while Sanders has 1,522 delegates, 1,481 pledged delegates and 41 superdelegates. A candidate needs 2,383 delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination.
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