Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were neck-and-neck in Kentucky’s presidential primary Tuesday, as Clinton declared victory and sought to blunt the momentum of her Democratic rival ahead of a likely general election matchup against Republican Donald Trump.
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Sanders supporters, hoping to send the same number of delegates to the convention as Clinton, reportedly threw chairs, clashed with supporters of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and revealed the home address and phone number of Roberta Lange, the Nevada Democratic Party’s chairwoman.
Reid, who maintains a close personal relationship with Sanders, called on him to do more to reign in his supporters and ensure that at the conclusion of the primary calendar they will be able to support Clinton if she wins the nomination.
Oregon Democrats are also voting Tuesday, and results from that state are expected after 11 p.m. ET.
Polls closed in Kentucky at 11am (NZT), but all the major media outlets in the USA say the race is still too close to call.
The former secretary of state won the state by half a percentage point with almost all the votes counted. With the tight margin in Kentucky, Clinton and Sanders will split the state’s delegates fairly evenly – each picking up at least 25.
Republicans will also vote in OR today, but that race is all but decided, with front-runner Donald Trump having pushed out all of his competitors. He still needs to win about 66 percent of all remaining pledged delegates to hold a majority of them; when superdelegates are included that proportion climbs to around 84 percent.
Sanders was favored in Oregon’s primary later Tuesday.
A Kentucky win is one Clinton fought hard for, campaigning heavily in the state. Any moves by her campaign to try drive Mr. Sanders out of the race could risk angering Democratic voters, including his supporters, and end up backfiring. When pledged delegates and superdelegates are combined, Clinton is now about 95 percent of the way toward securing the Democratic nomination.
The only thing that was certain is that neither candidate would win a big delegate advantage in the state since delegates are awarded in proportion to the vote they receive in each congressional district.
“I’m beginning to like the West Coast”, he said with a smile. Bernie Sanders Tuesday to publicly apologize for his supporters’ unruly and violent behavior at Saturday’s state party convention. But her delegate lead will still remain nearly 280 pledged delegates – virtually impossible for Sanders to make up in the remaining six state contests. Sanders – the proponent of Democratic socialism – crushed Clinton, bagging 53 per cent votes to her 47 per cent.
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The question was spawned by an early statement in which the presidential candidate said her husband would be a vital part of her administration’s work on the US economy. There are 55 delegates at stake in the super-close race.
