Sanders Wins West Va., Trump Rolls On

A defiant Bernie Sanders refused to go gently into the night on Tuesday with another last-minute primary win over Hillary Clinton that comes despite her commanding lead in the national race for delegates.

In a fundraising email sent out soon after polls closed, the leftwing senator hailed his victory in West Virginia and said: “Every vote we earn and every delegate we secure sends an unmistakable message about the values we share, the country’s support for the ideas of our campaign, and a rejection of Donald Trump and his values.”

He added: “There is nothing I would like more than to take on and defeat Donald Trump, someone who must never become president of this country. But I believe that it is not enough to just reject Trump – this is an opportunity to define a progressive vision for America. 

Presumptive Republican nominee also takes Nebraska primary as Sanders’ victory in the Mountain State brings him only a few delegates closer to Hillary Clinton 

  

“Voters agree: just today, three new polls showed that we are the best campaign to defeat Trump.”

In the Republican race, Trump beat former rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich in Nebraska and West Virginia. The two remained on the ballot despite having dropped out of the race last week. 

With 96.8% of the vote reporting, Sanders had 51.4% of the vote and Clinton had 36%. The remaining votes were spread between four other candidates, with lawyer Paul Farrell at 7%.

But with West Virginia’s 29 delegates awarded on a proportionate basis, the small net gain for Sanders is unlikely to make much of a dent in the lead of 290 pledged delegates that the former secretary of state had going into the contest. She is much further ahead when superdelegates – party elites not bound by primary results – are factored into the equation.