Although Sanders had more slots than Clinton, Nevada State Democratic Party Chair Roberta Lange awarded more delegates for Clinton at the national convention because the Sanders campaign only filled 78 percent of his available slots. Nate Cohn of the New York Times noted this troubling trend for Clinton, finding that her support among Sanders voters has dropped around 10 or 15 percentage points in recent weeks.
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After a strong April finish that put her 91 percent of the way to the nomination, Clinton was slowed by a lighter primary schedule and wins by Sanders in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won Washington’s caucuses in March, getting 74 delegates.
“I understand the Sanders supporters fighting until the end, it is very similar to the Clinton supporters in 2008”, Corbin said. While north of 80 percent of self-identified Democrats back Hillary against Trump, that number plunges into the low-to-mid 30s among self-identified Independents.
Sanders’ campaign launched a $1.5 million ad buy in the state and announced it would seek a recanvass in last week’s Kentucky primary, where he trailed Clinton by less than one-half of 1 percent. With a total of 303 delegates at stake in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, Trump should easily clinch the nomination that day.
“Meanwhile, the Clinton camp and the Democratic establishment have seemingly decided that their best bet at unifying the party is to take the despicable actions of a few individuals (and by despicable I don’t mean booing Democratic leaders or being impolite, but making threats or using violence, even though the apparent “violence” that erupted in Nevada recently was largely manufactured by the media) to generalize about an entire popular movement”.
So, Clinton can expect poll numbers to swing back in her direction once she officially wraps up the nomination.
Clinton is on an easy path to reach 2,026 pledged delegates – or more than half the 4,051 total – on June 7. She will get there even if she loses solidly in all six states.
Also coincidentally, a “Black Lives Matter” sign was held directly in front of Clinton while she was giving her speech. Sanders says he has a chance to pass her in pledged delegates, though he admits he faces tough odds.
There are 714 superdelegates, meaning 135 have yet to commit.
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While several LGBT voters who support Sanders and spoke to the Washington Blade identified reasons why they say Clinton is an unsatisfactory candidate, they say they’re beginning to look to Clinton because the prospect of Trump winning the White House is too frightening. Emmett Hansen of the Virgin Islands switched to Clinton, citing the specificity of her policy proposals.
