Former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton scored another huge win over Bernie Sanders in her home state of New York last night, putting her closer to clinching the Democratic nomination and casting more doubt on the logic behind Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders staying in the race:
NEW YORK — Hillary Clinton soundly defeated Sen. Bernie Sanders in her adopted home state of New York on Tuesday, placing the Democratic nomination nearly within her grasp after a fiercely fought primary season that has turned increasingly nasty.
With 98.5 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton led Sanders by 57.9 percent to 42.1 percent, allowing her to claim a lopsided share of the state’s delegates and strengthening her argument that there is no plausible way for him to erase her commanding lead.
“There’s no place like home,” a grinning Clinton told supporters in Manhattan.
“The race for the Democratic nomination is in the home stretch, and victory is in sight,” she said to thunderous applause. And then she addressed Sanders supporters directly: “I believe that there is much more that unites us than divides us,” she said.Both Clinton and Sanders have called New York a likely watershed in the unexpectedly long campaign, a crucial test of strength for both candidates offering a treasure trove of 247 delegates.
For Clinton, winning the large, diverse state buoys her campaign after a string of losses to her underdog rival. A Sanders victory here would have badly embarrassed her in the state she represented as senator for eight years — and would have lent credence to his now-fading argument that he can still catch up.
Clinton’s decisive victory is certain to increase questions about whether Sanders risks damaging the party’s chances in November if he continues to campaign as aggressively against Clinton.
Sanders has vowed to stay in the race through the July convention, and his ability to raise money online from his legions of loyal supporters should enable him to do that.
Before the New York results were announced, Sanders flew to his home town of Burlington, Vt., without the traveling press corps that usually accompanies him.
“Today we took Secretary Clinton on in her own state of New York and we lost,” Sanders told reporters in Vermont after landing. “There are five primaries next week. We think we’re going to do well.”
Sanders claimed to still have the momentum in the race and said, “We think we have a message that is resonating.
Campaigning earlier at Pennsylvania State University, Sanders complained about New York’s closed primary system, in which only registered Democrats can participate in the Democratic vote. According to exit polling reported by CNN, that requirement played strongly to Clinton’s benefit. Fully 83 percent of Democratic primary voters said they typically consider themselves Democrats, 10 points higher than the average so far this year and trailing only Mississippi. Clinton won self-identified Democrats by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent. Sanders won nearly three-quarters of self-identified independents, but they accounted for only 14 percent of the electorate, similar to 12 percent in 2008.
Sanders has won independents by 62 percent to 36 percent across previous contests this year in which exit polls were conducted, while Clinton has won self-identified Democrats by 64 percent to 35 percent.
Those victories — coupled with Sanders’s continued success in drawing large, enthusiastic crowds, as well as his extraordinary fundraising success — have sustained his long-shot candidacy and complicated Clinton’s argument that she is the better candidate to face the Republicans this fall.
Clinton is attempting to turn her attention toward a general-election contest against either Donald Trump, who won New York’s Republican primary Tuesday, or Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.). She is the foil for both Republicans, with each arguing that he is the better candidate to defeat her in November.
Earlier Tuesday, Clinton sought to turn the comparison with Sanders to international affairs and national security, areas in which she says his credentials are thin and hers robust.
“And at a time when terrorists are plotting new attacks and countries like Russia, China and Iran are making aggressive moves, protecting America’s national security cannot be an afterthought,” she said.
“Our next president has to be just as passionate about defending our country as she is about fixing our economy.”
Sanders has won independents by 62 percent to 36 percent across previous contests this year in which exit polls were conducted, while Clinton has won self-identified Democrats by 64 percent to 35 percent.
Those victories — coupled with Sanders’s continued success in drawing large, enthusiastic crowds, as well as his extraordinary fundraising success — have sustained his long-shot candidacy and complicated Clinton’s argument that she is the better candidate to face the Republicans this fall.
Clinton is attempting to turn her attention toward a general-election contest against either Donald Trump, who won New York’s Republican primary Tuesday, or Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.). She is the foil for both Republicans, with each arguing that he is the better candidate to defeat her in November.
Earlier Tuesday, Clinton sought to turn the comparison with Sanders to international affairs and national security, areas in which she says his credentials are thin and hers robust.
“And at a time when terrorists are plotting new attacks and countries like Russia, China and Iran are making aggressive moves, protecting America’s national security cannot be an afterthought,” she said.
“Our next president has to be just as passionate about defending our country as she is about fixing our economy.”
Preliminary exit-poll data suggested a large nonwhite turnout. Roughly 4 in 10 Democratic primary voters were nonwhite, up slightly from 30 percent in the state’s 2008 primary. Exit polling showed Clinton winning nonwhite voters by a 67 percent to 33 percent margin, just shy of her 70 percent to 29 percent edge across previous contests.
Clinton performs best with defenders of Wall Street. More than 6 in 10 New York Democratic voters said that Wall Street does more to hurt the economy than help, according to preliminary exit polling reported by CNN, and these voters favored Sanders over Clinton by a 12-point margin. Clinton won by more than 50 points among the roughly 3 in 10 voters who said Wall Street does more to help the economy.
More from The New York Times:
In the Democratic race, Mrs. Clinton was set to win roughly 30 more delegates than Mr. Sanders, out of 247 at stake. She already had a lead of more than 200 delegates in the race.
Smiling broadly throughout her victory speech, Mrs. Clinton drew cheers as she thanked her adopted home state and then boomed, “Today, you proved once again, there’s no place like home.”
“The race for the Democratic nomination is in the home stretch and victory is in sight,” Mrs. Clinton added, reflecting the overwhelming mathematical advantage she has in delegates.
Sanders advisers had said that beating Mrs. Clinton in her adopted home state represented one of their campaign’s best opportunities to damage her candidacy and sow doubts about her strength as a general-election nominee. On Tuesday, however, Mrs. Clinton drew deep support among women and blacks — two groups that have been essential for her in many states — while Mr. Sanders was outpacing her among white men and people under 45, according to exit polls.
“Bernie Sanders got very negative attacking Hillary Clinton and dividing the party in New York, and I think he now has to ask himself if he wants to keep going down that path,” said Jay Jacobs, a Clinton supporter who is the Democratic chairman in Nassau County on Long Island. “After New York, we’re moving into a phase of the campaign where we have to start uniting the party.”
Mr. Sanders and his team spent Tuesday looking past New York. Mr. Sanders held a rally at Pennsylvania State University in State College on Tuesday night, then flew home to Burlington, Vt., and spoke to reporters just after the race was called.
“There are five primaries next week and we think we are going to do well and we think we have a path toward victory,” Mr. Sanders said.
He also expressed concern about the closed primary system in New York and said he hoped it would change in the future. “Some three million New Yorkers were unable to vote today because they were registered as independents,” Mr. Sanders said. “That makes no sense to me.”
The Sanders campaign spent roughly $2 million more than the Clinton campaign on television ads in New York. The magnitude of the loss — both in the popular vote and in delegates — was steep for Mr. Sanders, who said he intended to get “recharged and take a day off.”
The senator’s advisers were optimistic that he would perform strongly in next Tuesday’s primaries in Pennsylvania as well as in Rhode Island and Connecticut. The other two states voting next week, Delaware and Maryland, are widely seen as Clinton strongholds. The Sanders campaign is already running television ads in those five states and Indiana, which votes May 3.
“Bernie is in good shape going forward no matter who wins New York,” said Tad Devine, a senior adviser on the Sanders campaign. “We could win enough delegates in Pennsylvania and Indiana to catch up further to her, and we have good opportunities all the way through California,” which votes June 7. Still, Mr. Devine acknowledged, “we’re going to have to have some big wins at the end” of the primary and caucus season.
Mrs. Clinton, a former senator from New York, received support from roughly six in 10 Democrats on Long Island, and she overwhelmed Mr. Sanders in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. Mr. Sanders won many upstate rural counties, where few votes were cast, and he also did well in the Hudson Valley, given the enclaves of liberals and college students.
As with Donald Trump, Clinton did better in the final results than most polling was indicating, a fact that indicates that her campaign likely did a good job of getting key voting groups to the polls, especially among minority voters in New York City, which has long been the stronghold for Democrats in the Empire State. While the magnitude of her victory is muted in comparison to some extent due to the Democratic Party’s proportional delegate allocation rules, it is still clear that Clinton had a very good night last night and stands well positioned in her hunt for a delegate majority in advance of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Indeed, Clinton’s victory was so far reaching that the logic behind Bernie Sanders campaign, something that Sanders is perhaps considering as he takes today off from campaigning.
If Sanders wants to look at the sobering truth, of course, he really only needs to look at the delegate count and the race ahead. Of the 247 delegates up for grabs last night, Clinton has won at least 139 and Sanders has won 106. Including Superdelegates, this means that there are roughly 1646 delegates left to be allocated among the remaining primaries, 172 of which consist of Superdelegates who have yet to endorse a candidate. As of this morning, Clinton has 1,930 delegates in her column, meaning that she would need another 452 delegates, or roughly 27. 46% of those remaining, to get to a delegate majority. Sanders, on the other hand, has 1,189 delegates and would need to get another 1,189 delegates, or roughly 72 .48% of those remaining, to get to a majority. Taking the Superdelegates out of the mix, Clinton could get to a majority by winning roughly 65% of the remaining pledged delegates, while Sanders would need to win 83.51% of the remaining pledged delegates. Realistically, there is no way Sanders could achieve either of these goals.
Looking ahead to next week, Hillary Clinton appears well-positioned to do well once again. She is currently ahead in the polling in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut and, like Trump, appears likely to do well in Delaware and Rhode Island as well. While she’s not likely to get the blowout win in any of these states that she did in New York, she should do well enough to continue racking up delegates, and will likely increase the pressure on Sanders to make some decisions about the future of a campaign that seems to be more quixotic as the days continue.
