Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Alaska caucus on Saturday by a wide margin over challenger Hillary Clinton.
With 38 percent of precincts reporting, Sanders has 78.7 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 21.3 percent.
“We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton’s lead, and we have—with your support coming here in Wisconsin—we have a path toward victory,” Sanders told a raucous crowd in Madison, Wisconsin, where voters will head to the polls on April 5.
Sanders cheered on the “momentum” of his campaign, which he said has brought out some 1 million supporters to rallies, particularly young voters.
Alaska awards 16 delegates, nine of which Sanders is on track to earn, slightly closing the gap between the Vermont senator and the former secretary of state, who currently leads by an estimated 294 pledged delegates, according to the Associated Press’s count. Clinton also leads in superdelegates—elected officials and party leaders who may switch their vote at any time before the Democratic convention in July—469 to 29.
Either Clinton or Sanders must reach 2,383 total delegates to win the party’s nomination.
Alaska’s mostly white population favors Sanders, who has consistently done well with that demographic.
Washington state and Hawaii are also holding Democratic caucuses on Saturday. Hawaii’s caucus begins at 1pm local time. Sanders is leading Clinton by a wide margin in Washington at the time of publication.
The Democratic presidential contest continues on April 5 in Wisconsin, followed by Wyoming on April 9.
Update 5:21pm CT, March 26: Added quote from Sanders.
Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)
