The democratic senator from Vermont pulled out a victory over party front-runner Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's Wisconsin primary, according to polls from Reuters and the Associated Press.
Wisconsin, today you sent a strong message: when we stand together there is nothing we cannot accomplish. Thank you! https://t.co/q4R6MeWehI
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 6, 2016
Of the 86 available delegates in the Badger State, Sanders secured 44 of them to Clinton's 28, while also garnering 54 percent of the popular vote to the former Secretary of State's 45 percent.
After Tuesday's primary Sander has a total of 1,055 and Clinton has 1,740.
2,383 are needed to secure the nomination.
Sanders' Wisconsin win is his sixth primary victory in a row, as he recently won Hawaii, Washington, Alaska, Utah, and Idaho and has continued to be vocally optimistic about his campaign as the race goes west.
"We knew things were going to improve as we headed West," he said at a Wisconsin rally before the primary, according to CNN. "We have a path toward victory."
While tonight's contest was not enough to seal the nomination in either candidates favor, it was a major win. However, Clinton looked forward after her loss, as she took to Twitter to congratulate Sanders.
"Congrats to @BernieSanders on winning Wisconsin. To all the voters and volunteers who poured your hearts into this campaign: Forward! –H"
The next democratic primary is April 9 in Wyoming, just 10 days before the next major contest in New York on April 19, which will divide its 247 delegates proportionally to popular vote.
Ted Cruz raised fresh hope of forcing Donald Trump to a contested party convention on Tuesday, beating the Republican frontrunner in a Wisconsin primary amid signs his brash campaign style may finally be turning off GOP voters.
Cruz was projected by the Associated Press to have won the important midwest showdown just over half an hour after polls closed at 8pm CDT. As the scale of his victory across the state became clearer, the Texas conservative was estimated to have won at least 33 of the 42 delegates on offer, possibly limiting Trump to just a handful by the end of the night.
In his victory speech, Cruz looked ahead to the convention in July and vowed he would win the 1,237 delegates needed “either before Cleveland or at the convention in Cleveland”.
The Texas senator said: “Tonight is a turning point [in the Republican primary]. It is a rallying cry ... We have a choice, a real choice.” And he echoed John F Kennedy in saying “Wisconsin lit a candle guiding the way forward” for Republican voters in future primaries.
Hillary Clinton also stumbled on her path to the White House, losing to Bernie Sanders in a Democratic primary that marked a sixth straight win for the Vermont outsider and shows his continued appeal among voters looking for radical change.
Sanders’ victory speech came at a rally in Laramie, Wyoming, where the campaign has its eye on the next caucus this Saturday and was in defiant mood despite the difficult mathematical challenge ahead.
“If you ignore what you hear in the corporate media, the facts are pretty clear: we have a path toward victory, a path toward the White House,” said the visibly-energised senator to excited shouts of “Bernie, Bernie”.
“Let me say a word, well perhaps two words, about what momentum is all about,” he added, describing how the media had dismissed him as a fringe candidate who started by 60-70 points behind in polling but had failed to realise what was motivating voters.
“From coast to coast ... people are saying why is it we have grotesque levels of inequality? ... Why is it the great middle class of this country has been shrinking?”
Trump still maintained some pockets of strength in rural, heavily Catholic areas in the north and west of the state, however, but these were eclipsed by Cruz’s strong performances in the so-called “WOW counties” of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington that ring Milwaukee. The Texas senator had counted on a strong performance in these areas, which had been crucial to Walker’s electoral success and provided Mitt Romney with his winning margin over Rick Santorum in the state’s 2012 presidential primary. Cruz even held his election eve rally in crucial Waukesha County, the most populous of the three, to shore up his base there.
In a statement, Trump raged about “lyin’ Ted”, saying: “Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet – he is a Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses to steal the nomination from Trump.”
The Cruz campaign brushed this off, with top aide Jason Miller simply saying “Donald’s gonna Donald”.
Yet Cruz’s win still leaves him more than 200 delegates behind Trump in the race to reach the 1,237 mark needed to clinch the nomination and the Texas senator conceded tonight that a contested convention which he once derided as “a fever dream” is now a likely scenario.
Further, the Republican primaries for the rest of April occur on Trump’s home turf. On 19 April Republicans will vote in Trump’s home state of New York and the so-called “Acela Primary” will be held on 26 April when Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island hold their primaries.
Polling and demographic data indicates that these states should be strongholds for Trump. But the Republican race still remains uncertain. All the normal rules of politics have seemingly been suspended so far, and, as Trump said at a campaign rally Monday night: “I don’t care about rules, folks.”
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