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Sanders sweeps Western Saturday
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This article covering the 2016 presidential election was written outside the scope of Ballotpedia's encyclopedic coverage and does not fall under our neutrality policy or style guidelines. It is preserved as it was originally written. For our encyclopedic coverage of the 2016 election, click here.
March 27, 2016
Bernie Sanders supporters sure can caucus. The underdog Democratic presidential candidate may trail his rival former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by hundreds of national convention delegates, but the Vermont senator’s dedicated supporters swamped the Clinton campaign in the March 26 Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington Democratic caucuses.
It’s almost and understatement to describe Sanders’ victories as landslides. In Washington, Sanders won 73 percent of the delegates who will attend legislative district caucuses and county conventions to Clinton’s 27 percent. Not only did Sanders win all of Washington’s 39 counties; Clinton managed to hit the 40 percent mark in only one of them, Garfield, in the remote southeast corner of the state.
In the 2008 Democratic presidential caucuses in Washington, then Illinois Sen. Barack Obama defeated Clinton, 68-to-31 percent (with one percent uncommitted). That year Obama also won every county, but at least some of them were relatively close. In suburban Snohomish County north of Seattle, Obama defeated Clinton roughly 66-to-33 percent. On Saturday, Sanders bested Clinton, 76-to-24 percent. Grays Harbor County, a lumber processing and commercial fishing center on the Pacific Ocean, is one of the most reliably Democratic counties in the state. In 2008, Obama defeated Clinton 56-to-42 percent in Grays Harbor. Sanders crushed Clinton there, 72-to-27 percent.
To be sure, Clinton did outperform her 2008 totals in some places. In King County, the state’s largest dominated by Seattle, Clinton won 33 percent compared to 27 percent eight years ago. Still the breadth of Sanders’ landslide victories in Washington as well as Alaska and Hawaii revived questions about the enthusiasm for Clinton’s candidacy among significant portions of liberal Democrats.
In the Alaska caucuses, which Sanders won 82-to-18 percent, he swept all 40 of the state’s legislative districts. In 10 of those districts, Clinton was completely shut out and won no delegates. Obama defeated Clinton 75-to-25 percent in 2008.
In the Hawaii caucuses, Sanders beat Clinton 70-to-30 percent. Eight years ago, Obama beat Clinton, 76-to-24 percent. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, turnout this year—33,698 according to the Associated Press—was slightly down from the 37,426 who voted in the 2008 Hawaii Democratic presidential caucuses.
As Sanders demonstrated on Saturday, winning caucuses by wide margins with an energized base of supporters can translate into delegate hauls that can help offset notable losses in big state primaries. For instance, according to AP, Sander’s victories in Alaska and Hawaii netted him 17 more delegates than Clinton received (10 in Alaska and seven in Hawaii). In Ohio, where Clinton soundly defeated Sanders 57-to-43 percent, she netted 18 delegates (with one of the state’s 143 pledged delegates remaining to be allocated by AP). Unfortunately for Sanders, only two more states, Wyoming and North Dakota, are scheduled to conduct Democratic presidential caucuses.
James A. Barnes is a senior writer for Ballotpedia and co-author of the 2016 edition of the Almanac of American Politics. He is a member of the CNN Decision Desk and will be helping to project the Democratic and Republican winners throughout the election cycle.
See also
- Presidential election in Alaska, 2016
- Presidential election in Hawaii, 2016
- Presidential election in Washington, 2016
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Presidential election, 2016/Polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards
- Presidential election, 2016/Straw polls
