Bernie Sanders Wins West Virginia Democratic Primary

Donald Trump takes the GOP in both West Virginia and Nebraska

bernie sanders
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Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump won the West Virginia primaries for their respective parties on Tuesday night.

The race was called for Trump at as soon as the polls closed at 7:30 p.m. ET but it took nearly two hours for Sanders to be named the Democratic winner.

The Sanders victory could potentially influence superdelegates that have already pledged support for Hillary Clinton, but are free to change their minds. Sanders remains mathematically unable to surpass Clinton unless he can convince party leaders to hop on his bandwagon.

West Virginia is notoriously anti-establishment and among the poorest and least diverse states in the country. Clinton easily defeated Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary in the state, so this loss is a cause for concern within her campaign.

Entering tonight, Sanders had 2,224 total delegates with 1,708 being pledged and 516 being superdelegates. 2,383 are needed to win the Democratic nomination and 29 are awarded in West Virginia.

Trump won the Republican primary in what is now a formality, as he’s already the presumptive GOP nominee. Trump also won Nebraska on Tuesday in a race that was called as soon as polls closed.

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