County strongly behind Sanders in primary

In terms of vote tally, Imperial County Democratic voters had minimal impact on Bernie Sanders convincing win in California’s Democratic Presidential Primary on Tuesday, but it terms of percentages, the senator from Vermont carried this county in a landslide.

At 10:37 p.m., with 163 of the county’s 197 precincts reporting, Sanders had collected 2,385 of the 6,058 (40.34 percent) Democratic votes cast. His closest competitor in the county Democratic race was former Vice President Joe Biden with 1,617 votes (27.35 percent).

Statewide, the gaps were much narrower. As of 9:50 p.m., Sanders had collected 28.9 percent of the vote. He was trailed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (18.4 percent) and Biden (17.1 percent).

Not surprisingly, incumbent President Donald Trump dominated his primaries both locally and statewide, carrying more than 92 percent of the Republican vote in both pools.

The races for both the 51st U.S. Congressional District and the 56th California Assembly District amounted to little more than previews for Nov.

3 as both candidates in each race will present themselves to voters again then. Nevertheless, neither result gave any reason to predict a November surprise.

Vargas led Republican challenger Juan M. Hidalgo Jr. with 65.5 percent of the vote throughout his district, while Democratic Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia had nabbed nearly 60 percent of the vote in his race against his Republican opponent, America Figueroa.

Nevertheless, Garcia said he doesn’t plan to take anything for granted between now and Nov. 3.

“My team and I have been working very hard,” he said. “We’re going to continue to run a strong campaign.” He said he plans to continue advocating for environmental issues, including the New River and Salton Sea, as well as for economic development and educational issues.