Sanders wins Democratic caucuses in Alaska, Washington

Bernie Sanders won overwhelming victories in Washington state and Alaska on Saturday, narrowing Hillary Clinton’s still significant lead in the race for delegates to win the Democratic nomination for president.

Sanders defeated Clinton in Washington’s caucuses 75% to 25% and 79% to 21% in Alaska’s, with about 38% and 72% of the states’ precincts reporting.

“We knew from day one we were going to have a hard time politically in the deep south – that is a conservative part of the country,” Sanders told supporters in Madison, Wisconsin. “But we knew things were going to improve as we head west.

“We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton’s lead,” he said. “We have a path toward victory.”

The most delegates were at stake in Washington, where Sanders drew more than 15,000 people to a Friday rally at Seattle’s Safeco Field. Washington, Alaska and Hawaii, which also held caucuses on Saturday, all award delegates proportionally to precinct results.

Sanders’ victories follow a dominant series of performances in the states that have caucused so far. The senator has fared best in contests dominated by party activists, and won in each except for those of two early states, Iowa and Nevada, where he narrowly lost.

He has been bolstered in Hawaii by the endorsement of Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned from a high post within the Democratic party to support the senator and has appeared in an ad on behalf of his campaign.

In 2008, Barack Obama overwhelmed Clinton in all three western contests – 68%-32% in Washington, 75%-25% in Alaska, and 76%-24% in his home state of Hawaii.

Sanders has a far more difficult path to the nomination, and even with his successes in Washington and Alaska, he remains a distinct underdog.

The next states to vote range along the north-east and through New England, including Clinton’s home state of New York, as Democrats hold “closed” primary elections that do not allow independent voters to participate.

This is a major disadvantage for Sanders, who has won unaffiliated voters by huge margins in open primaries.

Furthermore, the Democratic party allows for “superdelegates”, party officials who vote at the Democratic National Convention but who are not bound to vote according to their states’ election results. Among those, Sanders trails Clinton by an estimated margin of 469 to 29, making his path to the nomination even more arduous.

The senator has hinted at a quiet campaign to convince some superdelegates to switch their tentative support to his cause, saying last week: “I think it might be a good idea for superdelegates to listen to the people in their own state.”

Before Saturday’s races helped him cut into Clinton’s lead, the former secretary of state had 303 more pledged delegates than the senator.

Wisconsin’s primary, on 5 April, is a crucial contest for those Sanders supporters who are hoping to somehow pull off an upset.

With its long history of progressive activism, the midwestern industrial state offers the Vermont senator a chance to repeat the kind of surprise victory he managed in Michigan, and to secure his support with working-class voters whom Clinton hopes to win.