Hillary Clinton won West Virginia by a landslide Tuesday, giving her additional leverage to use if and when she cedes the Democratic nomination to rival Barack Obama.
Although the victory netted Clinton perhaps a dozen delegates and upward of 100,000 popular votes, she still trails Obama nationally by at least 150 delegates and more than a half-million popular votes.
The contest marked the first primary in West Virginia that was open to independents as well as registered Democrats, and turnout was very high — an estimated 300,000 voters, compared to just 78,000 in the 2004 Democratic primary. Even so, it fell short of what the Clinton campaign wanted.
“If 600,000 people show up,” Bill Clinton exhorted West Virginians last week, “you will see the earth move. You can do it.”
The former president also optimistically predicted that “Hillary can get 80 percent of the vote in West Virginia.” Exit polls showed her winning about 70 percent.
Although Clinton appears increasingly unlikely to win the nomination, her decision to remain in the race could give her leverage to lobby for any number of consolation prizes, including the vice presidency, the Senate majority leader job or even the Democratic presidential nomination in 2012.
Obama recognized in advance he would be trounced in West Virginia, where only 4 percent of the Democratic electorate is black, compared to a third in North Carolina, which he won last week. Also, West Virginia is dominated by working-class whites — half the voters in the primary had incomes below $50,000 — who have strongly preferred Clinton in previous contests.
“There is no question that Senator Clinton is going to win byhuge margins in the upcoming primaries in West Virginia today and Kentucky next week,” the Obama campaign acknowledged in a memo issued Tuesday, before any ballots were tallied. “But with 49 contests [in 45 states plus Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the District of Columbia] behind us and only six to go — including several states where we expect to do well — Barack Obama leads in pledged delegates, contests won, and superdelegates.”
Assuming Obama wins the nomination, he could be hurt in the fall by his poor showing among voters who were once known as Reagan Democrats. Exit polls in West Virginia showed Clinton winning 73 percent of white voters without college degrees. She also won 71 percent of women and 65 percent of senior citizens.
Race was a factor for 77 percent of respondents, compared with just 21 percent who said it was not a factor. And by a margin of 51 to 47 percent, voters said Obama shared some views of his controversial ex-pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
