Bernie Sanders needed a big win in Kentucky. Hillary Clinton needed to close out the Democratic nominating contest strong and turn her undivided attention toward Donald Trump.
Neither happened Tuesday night. Instead, Democratic primary voters delivered a split decision in Kentucky and Oregon.
Clinton went from beating Barack Obama in Kentucky by more than 35 points in 2008 to leading Sanders there by just 0.4 points after nearly all the votes were in. Even if Sanders had won the Bluegrass State, which was too close to call for most of the night, it wouldn't have changed the daunting delegate math.
With 99.9 percent of the votes in Wednesday morning, Clinton led Sanders 46.75 percent to 46.33 percent, a difference of less than 2,000 votes out of more than 450,000 cast.
The Vermont socialist senator did manage to beat the former secretary of state by nine points in Oregon, despite it being a closed Democratic primary. This barely dented his huge delegate deficit either but it helped him rally his supporters.
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04.25.2024