Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders handily won the day, sweeping two Democratic caucuses held on Saturday and appearing set to win a third.
But the independently affiliated lawmaker’s surge may prove shortlived, as front-runner Hillary Clinton heads into vital coastal states where she leads in polls with what remains a nearly insurmountable lead in delegates.
Sanders crushed Clinton in Alaska. He won 79 percent to her 21 percent, though fewer than 500 people in the state of less than a million people particpated in its caucus votes. In Washington, Sanders won 72 percent to Clinton’s 28 percent. As of press time Sanders was projected to take Hawaii by a wide margin.
“Last week we won Utah with 78 percent of the vote; Idaho with 79 percent of the vote. And we won Democrats abroad with 67 percent of the vote,” Sanders said in victory remarks.
Sanders has performed best in states with small African American and Latino populations, like Alaska, and in caucuses versus primaries. Hawaii’s demographics fit the mold with on notable exception — the Aloha State is majority minority. The single biggest ethnic group there is Asian, and 9.4 percent of the populace is Native Hawaiian. Alaska is majority white, but also has one of the country’s largest relative Native American populations — 14.4 percent. The whitest of the three states, Washington, at 7.1 percent has a sizeable Asian American population and at 11.2 percent, a healthy Latino population.
Excluding Hawaii’s results, the former secretary of state boasts 1,228 pledged delegates to the one-time Burlington, Vt., mayor’s 947. Clinton is trouncing Sanders in the all-important chase for super-delegates — local Democratic Party faithful and elected officials who can back any candidate at the national convention they choose.
Clinton has 469 super-delegates to Sanders’ 29. The wins looked likely to net Sanders more than 60 delegates, chipping away at Clinton’s lead.
But Sander’s argument is momentum. He says he is winning big, and argues he can convince superdelegates to switch their support to him if he beats Clinton down the homestreach.
“We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton’s lead and, with your support coming here in Wisconsin; we have a path towards victory,” Sanders continued during his speech in the Dairy State’s capital of Madison.
Wisconsin’s April 5 primary is the next contest in the Democratic nomination hunt. The self-described democratic socialist’s message resonates well with famously liberal Madison’s Democratic voters, but the path for Sanders becomes more uneven after Wisconsin. Next on tap, on April 19, is Clinton’s adopted New York, which she represented in the Senate. Clinton holds polling leads in other big states still on the calendar, California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She’s also a heavy favorite in Maryland and the District of Columbia.
However uphill Sanders’ climb is, Saturday’s shot in the arm gives him fresh ammunition for staying in the race.
“I would fully concede that we have a narrow path to victory,” Sanders told the L.A. Times earlier this week. “But it is a path.”
“The only thing that I would add to the arithmetic… is momentum,” he said. “And it is also the fact that many super-delegates have not yet declared,” Sanders said, holding out hope that if his once-quixotic effort to beat Clinton picks up enough steam he might be able to sway the party establishment, now is firmly in Clinton’s camp.
“For the super delegates and others who have declared, as I said long ago, the key issue, you know, people like Hillary Clinton more than me,” he continued in the interview. “That’s fine. But what people are most concerned of in the world that I live in is that a Republican not get into the White House. I think we can demonstrably make the case, and I say this without one second of hesitation, that I am the stronger candidate,” Sanders said.
