West Virginia is considered favorable territory for Bernie Sanders. “They need to get nervous because real change is coming”.
Advertisement
WASHINGTON (AP) Bernie Sanders has a problem.
Clinton’s lead is bigger when including superdelegates – party officials who can support any candidate. But Clinton – whether she meant to or not – has now basically invited Sanders and his supporters to give it a try. They don’t vote until the convention, but they’ve gone overwhelmingly for Clinton, creating a buffer that has added to an air of inevitability over her nomination.
At this stage of the primary race, most pundits rate his chances of winning the Democratic nomination as somewhere between slim to non-existent. Trump and Sanders are outsiders in their parties who are close to nominations.
But his math remains dire.
Assistant Professor Kelly Winfrey from Iowa State University’s Carrie Chapman Catt Centre for Women and Politics said: “There is no guarantee that the young Sanders voters that have only recently become involved in politics will even show up to vote in November if Sanders isn’t on the ticket”. So, since they probably won’t get it elsewhere, let’s offer a prayer of remembrance for the 445 Republican delegates and 926 pledged Democratic delegates left to allocate.
The totals include delegates won in primaries and caucuses, as well as public endorsements from superdelegates.
At the May 1 caucus where Sanders’ 2nd District delegates were selected, Carter, head of the Marin chapter of Progressive Democrats of America, was the top vote-getter among women – virtually assuring her a ticket to the convention.
Could a third-party candidate really win this time?
Sanders now has 1,415 pledged delegates compared to Clinton’s 1,705, although the latter’s superdelegate count far exceeds that of the Vermont senator, with Clinton’s count reportedly at 2,228 versus Sanders’ 1,454.
The allocations of votes resulted in three delegate votes pledged to Sanders and four pledged to support Clinton.
That feeling has led Sanders to enjoy a huge advantage among younger Democrat voters and has energized them to go out in their college campuses and get other students involved in the process.
But some Bay State Democrats are joining the revolt against the national party rule, which allows 25 MA superdelegates to ignore state voters and decide for themselves which candidate they will back.
Early on in 2008, for example, most were for Clinton. That leaves 152 still uncommitted. Plus, he would need to persuade more than 200 of Clinton’s superdelegates to switch their allegiance to him.
With the Democrat National Convention set for Philadelphia in July, New Jersey is one of the few large delegate prizes to be awarded in the final primaries in June.
“I hoping to hear good words from him, and I hope that we can make a difference in the primary election”, said Oriom Farr, a 20-year-old Materials Engineering major from Sparta, and treasurer for Rutgers for Bernie.
Clinton has recently sent advisers to Puerto Rico to learn more about the Zika virus and called on Congress to assist with the island’s financial crisis. The Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico still haven’t voted.
With both the math and the momentum on his side, Bernie Sanders could win eight of the next nine primaries, surprising some but confirming the predictions of Sanders and his campaign team.
Advertisement
Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand. (Don’t be surprised if Trump begins to sound like more of an economic populist than Clinton – he has already flip-flopped on taxes, saying that he would be willing to raise them on the wealthy.) It looks like Clinton will be running on a platform of what can be called “militant complacency”, as Tom Frank amusingly puts it in a recent article. Absolutely. Will I be discussing the differences of opinion Secretary Clinton and I have?
