Democrats in Washington state and Alaska made their choice for the party’s candidate for president Saturday.
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Bernie Sanders is the projected victor in Alaska and Washington this afternoon.
Meanwhile, early results in Washington show Sanders with a big lead, and voters in Hawaii begin caucusing at 1 p.m. local time (7 p.m. ET).
Mr Sanders had about 79 per cent of the vote in Alaska to Ms Clinton’s 21 per cent with 73 per cent of precincts reporting.
Ms Clinton holds a sizable lead in the delegates race against Mr Sanders.
Organizers are checking people in and handing out ballots to people inside the packed cafeteria.
The day got off to a rocky start in Anchorage, where dozens of people showed up to have coffee with Sanders’ wife, Jane Sanders, at the Bear Tooth Theater.
Dan McLay, 64, of Spokane, is retired and attended the caucus in a hard-hat, which he joked he needed because he was one of the relatively few Hillary Clinton supporters in the big crowd. Before taking that job, he was deployed to Iraq for 11 months as a sergeant in the Army.
Most of the Washington’s Democratic leadership has endorsed Clinton, including Gov. Jay Inslee and Sens. Democrats caucused statewide in support of either Sanders or Hillary Clinton. Sanders held five rallies in the state over the past week, ending with a speech to 15,000 supporters at Seattle’s Safeco Field Friday night. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) speaks to supporters after winning the Vermont primary on Super Tuesday on March 1, 2016 in Essex Junction, Vermont. Clinton has dominated in the South and Sanders’ greatest strength has been in caucus states.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Wisconsin as votes were still being tallied in Washington state, Sanders cast his performance as part of a Western comeback, citing recent victories in Utah and Idaho as a sign that his campaign still had a path to the nomination.
But the 74-year-old faces a steep to victory. Her campaign is well organized in Hawaii and she has racked up endorsements from key state leaders, including Sens.
Sarah Blazevic, 19, was home on Easter break from Gonzaga University and caucused for Sanders, partially because of his stance on making college free.
Shannon McDermott, 25, of Anchorage, said she supports Sanders because “he is all for Native sovereignty”.
Because of the strength of her position, Clinton has increasingly pivoted away from the primary contest toward the general election contest, spending much of the week, for example, highlighting her approach to dealing with ISIS in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Belgium. A campaign spokesman says there was a last minute schedule change.
While the caucus was located in the racially diverse but gentrifying Rainier Valley, most of those who turned out were white.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are vying to be their party’s presidential nominee.
Tens of thousands of people met at schools, libraries and community centers across the state of Washington. He needs to win more than 67 percent of the remaining delegates overall – from primaries, caucuses and the ranks of uncommitted superdelegates – to prevail.
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Washington is Saturday’s biggest prize with 101 pledged delegates up for grabs. But Sanders has raised more in individual contributions from this state than any other presidential candidate.
