The Campaign Trail 2016: Sanders Steps Up

Last night Senator Bernie Sanders and former Senator Hillary Clinton went head-to-head in caucuses in three western states.

The Last Frontier, the northernmost state in our republic, held its caucuses with 16 delegates up for grabs and Sanders won by a landslide with 81.6 percent of the vote. Sanders collected 13 of the delegates Alaska awarded and Clinton only received three for her 18.4 percent of the vote. The Aloha State, the southernmost state in our republic, and its 25 delegates, also held caucuses. Sanders won again in another landslide victory taking 69.8 percent of the vote. Hawaii gave Sanders 17 delegates for his win. Clinton received eight delegates for her 30 percent of the vote.

The Evergreen State, the only continental state to have a caucus yesterday, had the big prize of the night of 101 delegates. Sanders won the Washington caucuses with a third landslide victory receiving 72.7 percent of the vote. Clinton received 27.1 percent of the vote. Washington is still dividing up the delegates and Sanders should collect the bulk of them.

Last night's win was crucial to the Sanders campaign. Not only does it prove that Sanders can do better in the western side of the republic than he did in the south, a three state win by landslide will give his campaign the momentum that only major victories can give a campaign. As important as both of those are, the most important thing that last night's victory also gave Sanders is a large influx of delegates. Sanders has desperately needed a large influx of delegates and while last night's victory will not catch him up with Clinton, it definitely helps him along the way.

Sanders still has a tough fight ahead of him; he still has to catch up and pass Clinton to get to the magic number of 2,383. However, he has also shown Clinton that the western states are going to be a more bitter fight than the south was.

Next up for both the Democrats and the Republicans is the state of Wisconsin on April 5^th. Return after the results are finalized for the next installment of The Campaign Trail 2016.