Democrat Bernie Sanders on Wednesday squarely defeated Hillary Clinton in West Virginia, in a reminder to the frontrunner that she was yet to wrap up her own presidential nomination before taking on Republican Donald Trump, who cruised to victory in two more states.
The 74-year-old Vermont Senator, Sanders, easily won the primary in West Virginia by more than 15 per cent points but acknowledged that he has an uphill climb in terms of becoming the party’s nominee.
Sanders’ win is unlikely to prevent the 68-year-old former secretary of state from emerging as the presumptive Democratic nominee - given that she has a massive lead over him in the delegates count, but at the same time ensuring that Clinton’s ticket for the race to the White House is not a cake walk.
Sanders has won 19 states to Clinton’s 23, but she is 94 per cent through the way to winning the nomination - just 144 delegates short of the 2,383 required. As a consolation, Clinton won the Nebraska primary, but she is not getting any delegate from it. The delegates were allocated in the March 5 primary, which was won by Sanders. Clinton received 10 delegates as against Sanders’ 15.