This weekend the action is way out west and there are three caucus states which favor Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The front runner Hillary Clinton, does far better in primaries so it is expected that she will keep things close enough this weekend so that what delegates Sanders does get won’t matter much in the overall race.
There will be no action this weekend on the Republican side so the Democrats will battle it out in Alaska with 20 delegates at stake, Hawaii has 34 up for grabs and of course the big prize of 118 comes in the state of Washington.
Heading into the weekend Clinton has 1,223 pledged delegates on her side while Sanders trails with a total of 920 in his column with the magic number 2383 being what it will take to gain the nomination.
As you can see since there are winner take all contests on the Democratic side Sanders will have a good weekend but is unlikely to walk away with enough delegates to put a dent in Clintons lead.
For Sanders to beat Clinton he must start winning major state primaries and to date his only big state win came in Michigan in a very close race. His team is pointing to April where he hopes to win in Wisconsin and New York, and California’s June 7 primary.
Sanders’ best opportunity to cut into Clinton’s lead may rest in New York, which Clinton represented in the Senate, and in California, with 475 pledged delegates, the most of any state. Clinton, it should be noted, won both states convincingly over Obama in 2008.
That lead, however, is more than 300 pledged delegates — roughly about double the margin that then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama held over Clinton during the 2008 primaries. It’s math that’s forced Sanders to defend his path to victory amid whispers he should drop out.
But don’t look for Sanders to leave the race and this weekend he is likely to go 3-0. But gain few delegates.
