NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Saturday, February 20th, 2016

Hillary Clinton projected as the narrow victor in the Nevada Democratic caucuses

For­mer Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton will wind up eking out a nar­row vic­to­ry over Sen­a­tor Bernie Sanders in the Neva­da Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus­es, if pro­jec­tions by cable and broad­cast news net­works are accurate.

With 72.4% report­ing, Clin­ton had 52.3% sup­port, com­pared to 47.7% for Bernie Sanders. When all is said and done, she will prob­a­bly have at least one to two more del­e­gates than Sanders. There are only forty-three del­e­gates at stake.

Neva­da is the third state to hold a Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial nom­i­nat­ing event in the 2016 cycle, fol­low­ing Iowa and New Hampshire.

Clin­ton wast­ed no time declar­ing vic­to­ry, send­ing out texts and tweets thank­ing her Neva­da Demo­c­ra­t­ic sup­port­ers and look­ing for­ward to the South Car­oli­na pri­ma­ry and Super Tues­day (March 1st, 2016).

Clinton thanks Nevada supporters

Clin­ton thanks Neva­da supporters

“The feel­ing is mutu­al, Neva­da,” Clin­ton’s cam­paign tweet­ed.

“To every­one who turned out in every cor­ner of Neva­da with deter­mi­na­tion and heart: This is your win. Thank you. ‑H,” Clin­ton tweet­ed, in a mes­sage signed with her first ini­tial to sig­ni­fy that it was writ­ten by her.

Staffers also changed the avatar of the cam­paign’s Twit­ter account to a graph­ic pro­fess­ing its grat­i­tude for the outcome.

Team Sanders, mean­while, empha­sized cau­cus entrance polling that found that 79% of vot­ers believe Bernie “cares about peo­ple like me.” The Sanders cam­paign announced that Bernie had tele­phoned Hillary to offer his con­grat­u­la­tions on his vic­to­ry, and not­ed that only a few weeks ago, Clin­ton was believed to have a big lead in the state.

“I want to thank the peo­ple of Neva­da for the sup­port they have giv­en us and the boost that their sup­port will give us as we go for­ward,” Sanders tweet­ed.

He added, “I am very proud of the cam­paign we ran. Five weeks ago we were 25 points behind and we end­ed up in a very close election.”

“Proud that we brought many work­ing and young peo­ple into the polit­i­cal process. We have the wind at our back as we head into Super Tuesday.”

Clin­ton and Sanders are each set to speak short­ly, address­ing their supporters.

“This one’s for you… I want to con­grat­u­late Sen­a­tor Sanders on a hard fought race,” a jubi­lant Clin­ton said at her Neva­da cam­paign headquarters.

She took pains to stress that she sup­ports hold­ing Wall Street account­able and tak­ing action to arrest and reverse the flood of dark mon­ey in our elections.

“We aren’t a sin­gle-issue coun­try,” Clin­ton declared mid­way through her speech, in what appeared to be a sub­tle jab at Sanders’ campaign.

“We need more than a plan for the big banks. Amer­i­ca needs a raise.” Clin­ton seemed com­fort­able and poised on stage, touch­ing on a wide array of pol­i­cy direc­tions and bask­ing in the glow of vic­to­ry with her supporters.

“The fight goes on. The future we want is with­in our grasp!” she declared as she con­clud­ed her remarks and was joined onstage by Pres­i­dent Bill Clinton.

Bernie Sanders thanks Nevada

Sup­port­ers of Sanders not­ed that he held Clin­ton to a nar­row vic­to­ry in Nevada

Sanders, address­ing his sup­port­ers, also deliv­ered a ren­di­tion of his stump speech, assail­ing big mon­ey in pol­i­tics, income inequal­i­ty, and socioe­co­nom­ic injustice.

“I want to thank all of our sup­port­ers here in Neva­da… I want to thank our staff for the great job that they have done. I am espe­cial­ly proud that we are bring­ing work­ing peo­ple and young peo­ple into the polit­i­cal process in a way we have not seen for a very long time,” Sanders said to loud cheers.

“I believe that on Super Tues­day, we have got an excel­lent chance to win many of those states,” Sanders said, look­ing past the South Car­oli­na Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­ma­ry to the next set of nom­i­nat­ing con­tests. As he left the stage, he reit­er­at­ed that thought, declar­ing: “It’s on to Super Tues­day! Thank you all very much!”

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