Sanders takes West Virginia; Trump wins primaries there and in Nebraska

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — White House dreams fading, Bernie Sanders added another state to his tally against Hillary Clinton with a win in West Virginia on Tuesday — a victory that will do little to slow the former U.S. secretary of state’s steady march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.

Meanwhile, Republican Donald Trump also won there and in Nebraska, a week after he cleared the field of his remaining rivals. They were not victories likely to heal the party’s wounds, as some Republican leaders continue to hold off offering their endorsement of the party’s presumptive nominee.

The result in the West Virginia Democratic primary underscored the awkward position Clinton and the party’s establishment face as they attempt to turn their focus to the general election. Clinton is 155 delegates short of the 2,383 she needs to secure the nomination. To win them, she needs just 17 per cent of the delegates at stake in the remaining contests.

That means she could lose all the states left to vote by a landslide and still emerge as the nominee, so long as all of her supporters among the party insiders known as superdelegates continue to back her.

Still, Sanders is vowing to fight on. He campaigned in California on Tuesday for the state’s June 7 primary, and his victory in West Virginia highlighted anew Clinton’s struggles to win over white men and independents — weaknesses Trump wants to exploit in the fall campaign.

Among those voting in the state’s Democratic primary, about a third said they would support Trump over either Clinton or Sanders in November. An additional two in 10 said they wouldn’t vote for either candidate. But four in 10 also said they consider themselves to be independents or Republicans, and not Democrats, according to exit polls.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Trump’s leading opponent before he dropped out of the Republican presidential race last week, made clear he was in no hurry to endorse the mogul and reality TV star who defeated him.

“The voters in the primary seem to have made a choice and we’ll see what happens as the months go forward,” Cruz told conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck.

Cruz left open the possibility of restarting his campaign if he should score a surprise win in Nebraska. He didn’t.