Sanders says he’s riding momentum
Takes Wisconsin, but Clinton still has the math
Bernie Sanders prevailed in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary Tuesday, continuing his win streak over Hillary Clinton.
In a victory speech from Wyoming — which holds a caucus on Saturday — Sanders claimed momentum and argued he is a stronger general election candidate than Clinton.
“We are defeating Donald Trump by very significant numbers,” Sanders said of the Republican front-runner, before taking aim at the billionaire class, the fossil fuel industry and super PACs.
Clinton tweeted congratulations to Sanders, adding “to all the voters and volunteers who poured your hearts into this campaign: Forward!”
With his win in the Badger State, Sanders has pocketed six of the past seven contests, even though he’s barely denting Clinton’s sizable delegate lead.
Earlier Tuesday, his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, says his streak is proof the candidate can still close the gap in pledged delegates, which stood at 263 entering Tuesday’s primary, according to the Associated Press.
Weaver told CNN that he believes the battle will continue until the party’s nominating convention in July. Democratic strategists are more skeptical.
“He can assert it, but it seems extremely unlikely” that Sanders can catch Clinton, said Steve Elmendorf, deputy campaign manager for John Kerry’s 2004 Democratic presidential campaign. “The numbers don’t add up,” said Elmendorf, who supports Clinton but is not working for her.
Democrats do not award delegates on a winner-take-all basis, making it difficult for underdogs to overcome large deficits. Sanders would have to win big primary states by large margins in order to catch Clinton.
While the Vermont senator has won a number of smaller caucus states, Sanders has won only two primaries with more than 60% support: his home state of Vermont and neighboring New Hampshire.
Polls show Clinton up by 10 points in the next major contest on the primary calendar: New York, which she represented for eight years in the U.S. Senate.
“Many would consider that an embarrassment for Hillary Clinton” if she didn’t win by a margin larger than that, said David Wasserman, an elections analyst at the non-partisan Cook Political Report. “And yet it would seal the deal even more for Hillary Clin- ton” because she would expand her delegate lead, he said.
Whatever the outcome in New York’s April 19 primary, the forecast remains the same: The race is likely to wrap up in June, when California votes.
Sanders is burrowing in for a floor fight. He’s suggesting that delegates from states he won should flip to his column, and his campaign is approaching delegates to back the candidate.
As for the Clinton campaign, both the candidate and her staff are showing signs of irritation. On Monday night, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook released a memo titled “The Facts on Where the Race Stands.”
He writes Clinton has “built a nearly insurmountable lead among both delegates and actual voters.”
In a Tuesday town hall in Brooklyn, Clinton took some shots at Sanders, particularly on his plan to provide free college tuition and his 2005 vote to provide legal immunity for gun manufacturers.
Even as the campaign moves to New York, a state that she hoped to carry by a large margin, the race will be tight, said Dan Gerstein, director of Gotham Ghostwriters and an independent political analyst in New York City.
“It’s going to be a continuation of the more global dynamic,” Gerstein said. “She’s going to win. It’s going to be closer than it should be.”