Hillary Clinton soundly defeated Bernie Sanders in Sunday’s Democratic presidential primary in Puerto Rico, drawing closer to securing the number of delegates needed to win her party’s White House nomination.
In early returns, Clinton led Sanders by a 2-to-1 margin, the Associated Press reported, but Clinton was not expected to win all 60 delegates at stake Sunday, which would have put her over the top in the nomination battle against Sanders, CNN reported. She remains shy of the 2,383 she needs to win the Democratic nomination but is expected to cross that threshold on Tuesday, when voters in California, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and Montana vote.
Clinton also notched a victory in Saturday’s caucuses in the U.S. Virgin Islands, NBC News reported. She won all seven pledged delegates at stake, the Los Angeles Times reported.Why are you yelling? The questions female candidates still face
Sunday’s results were slow to arrive, as officials counted ballots by hand and focused first on releasing results tied to the island’s local primary, AP reported.
“I’m for Hillary, girl,” said 83-year-old Candida Dones. “I can’t wait for a female president. She’s one of us. She wears the pants. If we don’t look out for our own interests, who will?”
While Puerto Rican residents cannot vote in the general election, the island’s politics could reverberate into the fall campaign. Tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans have left the island to escape a dismal economy, with many resettling in the key electoral battleground of Florida.
Both Sanders and Clinton have pledged to help as the island’s government tries to restructure $70 billion worth of public debt the governor has said is unpayable.
