Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday took another contest from Hillary Clinton, besting her in the Wyoming Democratic caucus, his seventh consecutive win in primary elections.
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The Sanders team said other tallies had undercounted the candidate’s delegate haul from a recent landslide caucus victory in Washington state, county-level wins in the Nevada caucuses held in February, and revised awards from the Arizona primary on March 22.
Sanders still would need to overcome a large Clinton lead in pledged delegates and superdelegates – party officials and elected lawmakers – to secure the Democratic nomination at the July convention.
Clinton, meanwhile, already has more than half the 2,383 delegates and enjoys a lead of more than 200 over the self-proclaimed democratic socialist.
247 Number of delegates at stake in April 19 Democratic presidential primary in NY.
In Wyoming’s Republican contest last month, US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas beat NY billionaire Donald Trump, the party’s frontrunner.
In fact, Sanders was giving a speech in NY when his wife interrupted him with news of the Wyoming victory.
Sanders, though, would not take the bait when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper to comment on Bill Clinton’s controversial response to a Black Lives Matter protester at a rally in Philadelphia last week.
Since Clinton and Sanders both have strong ties to NY, this will likely be a fraught race, and one that will make a major difference in the final outcome of the primaries.
In New York, Clinton leads Sanders 53 percent to 37 percent; and in Pennsylvania, she tops him 49 percent to 38 percent.
Democratic presidential hopefuls were also focused on New York’s big trove of delegates even as Wyoming gave its nod to Mr Sanders over Mrs Clinton. “Let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton, I don’t believe that she is qualified if she is, though her super PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special-interest funds”.
The win was the eighth in the past nine contests for Sanders, who has pointed to the streak as a sign of momentum for his campaign.
“I think it’s fair to say that when we began this campaign we were considered to be a fringe candidate”, said the 74-year-old.
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The New York Fox News poll showed Trump poised to cross the 50 percent statewide threshold needed to capture all of New York’s statewide Republican delegates.
