SANDERS WINS UTAH AND IDAHO; CLINTON TAKES ARIZONA

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this

 

 

Story and photo by Miriam Raftery

Photo:  Senator Bernie Sanders and his wife, Jane, left, in San Diego tonight

March 22, 2016 (San Diego) – Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders gained some momentum for his presidential campaign tonight, winning 74% of the Democratic delegates in Utah and 78% of the delegates in Idaho, the New York Times projects.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won Arizona, with about 59% of the vote. Overall, Sanders won 73 delegates tonight, 16 more than Clinton, who won 57 tonight.

Sanders’ strong showings in conservative Utah and Idaho, where independent voters were allowed to vote, could bode well for his chances to pull in independents in a general election should he win.  Clinton’s win in Arizona and some other key states recently came in places where only Democrats could vote.

Sanders has a lot of ground to make up. Clinton currently has amassed 1,214 delegates allotted by voters and another 469 super delegates. Sanders has 899 delegates and 26 super delegates. So he would need to win nearly all of the remaining states, some by hefty margins.

That said, he very strong showing in Utah and Idaho tonight show that its premature to count Sanders out. Clinton’s early wins were largely in the conservative south, but western states such as liberal Oregon and Washington have yet to vote, along with some other states with large urban liberal populations.

There are another 2,159 delegates left to be determined in the remaining primaries and caucuses.

California, with 548 Democratic delegates, is the richest prize. Speaking in San Diego tonight, Sanders told a crowd of over 13,000 people “If you turn out in California, we win.”  (Watch for our full coverage of Sanders’ San Diego speech soon.

       
       

 


Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.