Sanders nets 31 Washington delegates, Clinton wins Guam caucus
WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has cut into Hillary Clinton's delegate lead by 31, based on new data from Washington state, but his chances of winning the nomination haven't gotten much better.
The new delegate count comes just as Clinton was declared the winner of Guam's Democratic caucuses Saturday, according to unofficial results announced by Guam Democratic Party chairman Joaquin Perez. According to Perez, Clinton won 60 percent to Sanders' 40 percent. Only seven pledged delegates were at stake in the Guam contest.
Sanders handily won Washington's caucus on March 26, when the Vermont senator won 25 of the 34 delegates awarded that day. An additional 67 district-level delegates could not be divided up until the state party released vote data broken down by congressional district.
District-level data provided Saturday to The Associated Press show that Sanders will pick up 49 of those delegates, while Clinton will receive 18.
The party's delay in releasing the data had generated some debate on social media, where Sanders supporters questioned why he had not received more delegates in a state he won big. The party said it had a multistep process for awarding delegates and could not immediately generate the more detailed information.
Still, even with the additional delegates for Sanders, his mathematical chances of winning the nomination haven't improved.
Based on primaries and caucuses to date, Clinton now has 1,702 delegates while Sanders has 1,411 - or a lead of 291 delegates, according to the AP count.
If he hopes to overtake her based on just those primary and caucus delegates, he still must win 66 percent of the remaining delegates - a figure basically unchanged from before.
Clinton's lead is bigger when including superdelegates - party officials who can support any candidate.
She now has a total of 2,224 delegates, or 93 percent of the 2,383 delegates needed to win. Sanders has 1,450.
Just 159 delegates short, Clinton remains on track to clinch the nomination early next month.