Contact CU Independent News Staff Writer Jake Mauff at jacob.mauff@colorado.edu.
The candidate that wins Super Tuesday more often than not goes on to win their party’s nomination, which should should be good news for Democratic front-runner and former Secy. of State Hillary Clinton.
But it might not be that black and white on the blue side of the aisle. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is making a push as well. Sure, he faces a major uphill battle, but he received a moral victory after Tuesday’s showings.
Among states with voting restricted or somewhat restricted to registered Democrats, Sanders had a strong performance. Only one state, Colorado, had fully closed voting, while Massachusetts and Oklahoma had semi-closed voting.
In Colorado, Sanders won the caucus with 58.9 percent of the vote. Similar results followed in Oklahoma, where he gathered 51.9 percent of the vote. This doesn’t seem like a lot, but voting results in the state were much more diverse. Five additional candidates received votes, so Sanders still won by 10 points.
Massachusetts didn’t give the Vermont senator a win. He did, however, come in close to Clinton at 48.7 percent to Clinton’s 50.1 percent.
Results like this show that Sanders seems to be polling better with registered Democrats, which appears to be some kind of endorsement from the committed left. But that doesn’t mean the nomination will come.
Clinton, on the other hand, polled better in open voting states. She won every open state except for Minnesota and Vermont. Vermont, as stated before, is Sanders’ home state, so he polled very well. Minnesota was the only state other than Colorado where a caucus, rather than a primary, was held.
This propelled the former secretary of state into a very good position in the delegate count. She is 1,052 delegates deep into the race for 2,382. Though Sanders may have received a moral boost, it might not matter in the long run. His delegate count stands out 427.
These numbers do include superdelegates — delegates unattached to the popular vote. This means they can switch the candidate they support whenever they like. Clinton currently leads in superdelegates 457 to 22. Though this is promising, Clinton experienced superdelegates shifting candidate loyalty in the 2008 election when Barack Obama gained momentum.
Nothing is official yet in the Democratic race for the nomination, except for the candidates who are running. It’s a much more confusing picture across the aisle, but with a strong Super Tuesday showing, Clinton seems poised to grab the bid for the presidency.
