That 37 percentage point margin is better still than an expected victory margin of 26 percent based on Real Clear Politics’ pre-election polling average.
Advertisement
“Perhaps inspired by the Bernie Sanders message of ‘Not me”.
But even accounting for the favorable demographics, this is a good result for Clinton. Projecting forward, Sanders simply needs to do better than this to win nationally.
Clinton not only has the edge in perceived electability, but she continues to be seen as having the advantage with Democratic primary voters on the ability to serve as Commander-in-Chief (where she outperforms every remaining GOP candidate with the public as a whole) and in trust in how she would deal in handling the economy, Sanders’ signature issue. Her rhetoric of “tearing down barriers” presents a contrast to Trump’s vow to build a massive wall along the Mexican border.
As Mrs Clinton relished the most sweeping victory of her political career, her focus was already on Super Tuesday.
Clinton and Trump have been the leading frontrunners in their respective parties’ after Trump recently secured his third victory in the state of Nevada and Clinton her second. Together those states will distribute fewer than 300 delegates.
Sanders vowed to fight on, expressing confidence that he would notch some victories and win delegates on Tuesday. He won by 22.
Clinton aides and allies also worry that Trump’s unorthodox constituency of working-class white voters might allow him to put more states in play – particularly Midwestern swing states like OH and Wisconsin – compared to past nominees like Mitt Romney and John McCain.
The question then, was if Sanders could make headway with non-white voters.
Clinton went on to target two topics popular with liberal Democratic voters – raising the minimum wage and the Affordable Care Act.
All Virginia voters are eligible to participate in either the Republican or Democratic primary but can not vote in both.
Sanders can easily afford to do poorly in that long list of Southern states, but given Democrats’ proportional allocation rules, he can’t afford to do as poorly in Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Virginia, and Arkansas as he did in SC.
Earlier Sunday, Sanders criticized Trump for not disavowing support from David Duke, the ex-Ku Klux Klan leader. Sanders had lost SC, badly.
On Sunday, Clinton church-hopped across Memphis, Tenn., to mobilize African-American voters ahead of Tuesday’s primaries.
At an Oklahoma City rally, Sanders drew big applause for saying that nothing would please him more than defeating the NY billionaire. “America has never stopped being great”, she told supporters in her victory speech in SC, declining to mention Trump by name, but taking a jab at his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again”.
Advertisement
We know that winning a primary or caucus is important, but it’s easy to forget why. Acceptable forms of identification include an Oklahoma driver’s license or identification card, a USA passport or military identification card, or photo identification from a federally recognized tribe.
