Detroit: Bernie Sanders registered his biggest win of the Democratic presidential race today by defeating party’s front-runner Hillary Clinton in the Michigan primary, giving his campaign a bounce ahead of the vital March 15 primaries in Florida, Ohio and three other big states.
Earlier, Clinton, 68 had an impressive win in the US State of Mississippi, as a result of which she was able to have more delegates in her kitty as against Sanders.
However, her defeat in Michigan, which includes the auto Capital of Detroit, and its neighbourhood, at the hands of 74-year-old Sanders albeit by a narrow margin is an indication of the challenges she might face in the rest of her presidential campaign.
Clinton was expected to have an easy win in Michigan, where according to some polls she was leading by more than 20 points.
But when results came in, Sanders won the support of 50 per cent of the Democratic voters, while 48 per cent supported Clinton.
People of Michigan have defied the pundits and pollsters, Sanders said in a statement.
“This is a critically important night. We came from 30 points down in Michigan and we re seeing the same kind of come-from-behind momentum all across America,” he said.
“Not only is Michigan the gateway to the rest of the industrial Midwest, the results there show that we are a national campaign. We already have won in the Midwest, New England and the Great Plains and as more people get to know more about who we are and what our views are we re going to do very well,” Sanders said.
Despite the upset in Michigan, Clinton still has a lead in the number of delegates, which is crucial for winning the party’s presidential nomination.
Of the 4,763 delegates, she needs 2,382 delegates to become the party’s first ever women presidential nominee.
So far she has support of 1,215 delegates which includes 739 won through the primaries and 461 the support pledge by super delegates.
Sanders has 566 delegates including 535 delegates through primary election.
Clinton has so far has won 12 States, while Sanders has won nine States.
PTI
