Hillary Clinton won the North Carolina primary on Tuesday, concluding her sweep of the Southern primary states and inching closer to the Democratic nomination.
The former secretary of state based the beginnings of her campaign on building a “Southern firewall,” by amassing big wins in Southern states and thus blocking Sanders from ever being able to catch her delegate count. Clinton has been entirely successful in this effort, carrying off tremendous wins across the region — such as her 82.6-16.5 win in Mississippi or her 78-19 win in Alabama.
Unlike Bernie Sanders, Clinton excels among African-American voters, majorities of whom reside in the south.
Although Clinton didn’t spend as much time campaigning in North Carolina as she did in some other states, the Democratic front-runner held few campaign events throughout the state the week before the primary. In contrast, Sanders poured a lot of effort into the state, holding numerous campaign rallies in the state
Despite Clinton’s 57.0-33.0 lead in the days leading up to the primary, the Sanders campaign warned they planned to run a close race with the Democratic front-runner in North Carolina and win a big amount of the state’s 107 delegates.
In turn, Clinton encouraged voters in Raleigh yesterday to go to the polls no matter what, claiming that despite her large lead “everybody should come out. There’s so much at stake in this election.”
