President gets Alaska, Wyo. contest wins

JUNEAU, Alaska — President Joe Biden nudged further ahead in the Democratic nomination for re-election by winning party contests in Wyoming and Alaska.

As two of the least populated states, Alaska and Wyoming play minuscule roles in both intra-party and general election voting in presidential election years.

Biden effectively clinched the Democratic nomination on March 12 with the Georgia primary and is now all but certain to face former President Donald Trump as the Republican nominee in November.

Alaska

Alaska Democrats held a voice vote for their party-run preference poll at in-person and virtual district meetings. The party announced Saturday that Biden won 15 pledged delegates.

Biden was the lone candidate eligible to receive votes after the other Democrat to qualify, Dean Phillips, suspended his campaign last month. The vote was held during meetings where other party business is conducted.

The polling was delayed a week. Democrats had planned a ranked vote election by mail on April 6, but those plans changed when only Biden and Phillips qualified for the ballot and when Phillips suspended his run.

Changes to their plan were approved by the Democratic National Committee.

There were no provisions for writeins or uncommitted, said Lindsay Kavanaugh, the Alaska party’s executive director.

“There is no option to vote nay,” she said. “You can abstain. You don’t vote yes or no, you vote for a candidate.”

The party proceeded with a vote, even with just one candidate, “to make sure we’re as inclusive as possible,” she said, and to avoid any inference that party leaders were deciding candidates themselves.

Wyoming

Biden won in Wyoming, where polling determined which candidate got the state’s 17 national delegates.

The caucuses also decided who goes to the state Democratic convention on June 1 in Casper. There, 13 of Wyoming’s national convention delegates will be chosen.

Wyoming’s other four “automatic” national delegates are the state party chairman, vice chair and two national committee people, who have not yet pledged for Biden or anyone else.