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Bernie Sanders’ Sweep Of Western States Foreshadows A Path To Victory [Video]

By Nick Younker
Published on: 06:45 PST, Mar 27, 2016

The Bernie Sanders sweep of western states on Saturday has clearly put the Vermont senator on a clear path to victory in the Democratic primary contest between himself and heavily favored rival, Hillary Clinton.

In a bold statement on Saturday, supporters of Bernie Sanders came out in droves to support the underdog contender against Democratic heavyweight Hillary Clinton. Not only did Sanders win all three western states on Saturday, but he did so with quite a resounding message to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party.

Sanders beat Clinton by some of the largest margins in recent history in those states, taking in a lion’s share of the votes in all three western states, which included Alaska, Washington, and Hawaii, according to New York Magazine.

To get a little perspective about how those states have reshaped the Democratic primary race, just take a look at these margins for the western sweeps by Sanders.

In Washington, which was one of the biggest victories for Bernie Sanders in terms of delegates, he took in 73 percent of the vote, with Clinton lagging behind in the far distance, at around 27 percent. Although it was expected for Sanders to win this contest, no one expected it to be by such a huge margin. In this case, the margin matters because delegates are divided out by the percentages, not just by a state win, as is the case with the electoral college in the general election.

In Alaska, although voter turnout was somewhat low, Sanders still took the contest with 81 percent of the vote. That towered over Clinton’s 18 percent and put Sanders in victory lane miles ahead of her. The takeaway from this is that Sander’s message is far-reaching and resonating heavily with voters in the smaller, more rural areas.

That was also the case with the other state that is continentally divided from the mainland. In Hawaii, Sanders pulled in 70 percent of the vote with Hillary Clinton once again miles away from him at 30 percent.

If these margins of victory in the western states sweep don’t wow the voters, then that just means they have not been paying attention to the race. Hillary Clinton has been the odds-on favorite since the beginning, and Bernie Sanders came out of nowhere and has officially rained on her parade. Although Clinton does indeed have a delegate count lead in the race, it has been mostly with states that have a heavy GOP-leaning presence that might appeal to her more centrist-leaning political ideology.

But with Bernie Sanders, who has taken to the liberal platform with the Democratic party with hearty passion, the heavy left-leaning states are still to come, and that means he could really make up some lost ground in the east and the west with future primary contests. That includes New York, California, and Wisconsin.

So, why does this mean that Sanders may be on a clear path to victory over Clinton? Well, the results of the western sweep by Sanders could clearly be indicative that other voters in other key states could be leaning toward Senator Sanders as more time passes, and his message resonates with those voters. But there is also the influence the western sweep may have on the voters, as well, which seems to have been a trend with Hillary Clinton when she was picking up major victories.

Although there is now way to tell for sure, Bernie Sanders is clearly not out of the race and, furthermore, the race could be turning its tide in favor of him meaning the primary contest could be going all the way to the convention.

[Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images]

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