Bernie Sanders lost Idaho’s Democratic presidential primary, missing out on much-needed delegates to stay in the party’s 2020 race for the White House.
Joe Biden received 48.4% support and nine-plus delegates to Bernie Sanders’s 42.5% and eight-plus delegates, with 96% reporting.
Idaho, a conservative stronghold statewide, is home to 20 pledged delegates.
Sanders’s defeat is at odds with his past performance in the state. The Vermont senator dominated in Idaho during its 2016 caucuses, beating rival Hillary Clinton with 78.04% of the vote to her 21.21%.
Ahead of the March 10 round of Democratic contests, Biden, the two-term vice president, led Sanders in the delegate count for the nomination, garnering 635 to his opponent’s 558.
A total of 1,991 delegates is needed to lock down the party’s nod for the right to take on President Trump in the general election.
