Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is projected to win the Democratic primary in West Virginia, a state his rival Hillary Clinton won against Barack Obama in 2008. Clinton supporters were anticipating an uphill battle in the lead-up to Tuesday’s election. His West Virginia victory was projected by NBC and Fox News.
Despite the win — and a series of recent success — Sanders still trails Clinton in the delegate count and has virtually no path to making up the difference and winning the Democratic nomination.
Clinton was under fire in the state for a remark she made about the coal industry — a major industry in West Virginia — in March. Speaking of her push towards renewables energy, she said, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
Though she tried to walk back the comment, it continued to dog her. Her connections with the Obama administration also didn’t help, as his regulations on the coal industry are unpopular in the state. A laid-off coal worker publicly confronted her about the comment at a round table last week and she faced protests at other campaign events.
Meanwhile, the state presented some advantages for Sanders, despite its more conservative-leaning Democratic constituency: it is a very white state, while Clinton typically does better in states with large minority populations. It also had an open primary and Sanders’ platform focused on economic inequality resonated in the state that has struggled economically.
