Hillary wins Puerto Rico primary
Clinton close to magic number, but Sanders vows to fight till Democratic convention
Washington, June 6: Hillary Clinton defeated her rival Bernie Sanders in Puerto Rico’s Democratic primary Sunday, bringing her to the brink of victory in their long- fought battle for the party’s presidential nomination.
Former secretary of state, Ms Clinton, won with 59.38 per cent of the vote against 37.53 per cent for Mr Sanders, according to official results from the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico.
Victory in debt- hobbled Puerto Rico marked a double dose of good news for Ms Clinton over the weekend, with another territory, the US Virgin Islands, voting overwhelmingly for her on Saturday.
The pair of wins provides a boost ahead of Tuesday’s culminating vote with New Jersey and the big prize of California at stake. “We just won Puerto Rico! Gracias a la Isla del Encanto por esta victoria!” Ms Clinton wrote in a bilingual tweet that thanked the Isle of Enchantment for the win.
Puerto Rico has 60 pledged delegates at stake, and Ms Clinton won 36 of them, with 24 going to Mr Sanders. That puts Ms Clinton, who amassed 2,323 delegates prior to Puerto Rico’s vote, just a handful shy of the 2,383 needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, a threshold she will undoubtedly cross on Tuesday. Mr Sanders, however, has vowed to fight on all the way until the Democratic National Convention in July.