US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has narrowly won the crucial Democratic presidential caucuses in Nevada, US media reports said.
Advertisement
At time of writing, with 85 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton led Sanders by about five percentage points, 52.5 percent to 47.4 percent. Saturday’s decision was hard for her down to the final moments, when she had to decide whether to sit on the Bernie Sanders or Clinton side of the caucus at Caesar’s Palace.
Chelsea Clinton (L) speaks as U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton look on at a campaign rally at the Clark County Government Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 19, 2016.
Caucus-goers were about evenly split between whether they most prefer a candidate with experience, one who’s honest or one who cares about people like them, and were slightly less likely to say it’s most important to have a candidate who can win in November. Van Dyke called Sanders a “New Deal Democrat”, and said he was the first candidate he had actively campaigned for since Eugene McCarthy’s run in 1968, fueled by his opposition to the Vietnam war.
“In South Carolina I met kids trying to learn in crumbling classrooms, Clinton said to help drive her points home”. Television networks Fox News and MSNBC projected Clinton would win.
With 35 at stake, she will gain at least 18.
“This is your win”, the former Secretary of State said in a tweet, thanking supporters.
Clinton won 57 percent of the women’s vote as well.
While Sanders made inroads among Hispanics in Nevada, Clinton is still heavily dominant among African-Americans – a far more substantial voting bloc in the SC primary and one that if Sanders can not penetrate he will struggle to win the Democratic nomination.
CNN exit polls showed Sanders winning white voters, with Clinton leading among non-white voters.
Advertisement
An email from his campaign indicates that Sanders may already be looking past next weekend’s SC primary, focusing instead on a big showing in the Super Tuesday contests when 12 states will hold primaries.
