Bernie Sanders Declared Winner of Wyoming Democratic Caucuses: AP
He's now won 7 of the last 8 states up for grabs.
— -- The Associated Press has declared Bernie Sanders the winner of today's Democratic caucuses in Wyoming.
Sanders has been gaining momentum the past few weeks as he's won seven of the last eight states, all in the west -- Idaho, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Wisconsin and now Wyoming.
"I think that it is very fair to say that we were way, way behind during the first half of this contest, but we are having to say the least, a very strong second half," Sanders said today during a rally in Long Island City, New York, after results were announced.
"We are closing very fast, and now that Wyoming is behind us, we are here in New York state," he said "And I've been pleased to sense a great deal of momentum. We have had a number of rallies in Brooklyn, in Queens where we are now. In Manhattan, in the Bronx. We'll be going to be Staten Island, we'll be heading upstate. No question in my mind that we have the momentum, some of the polls out there are reflecting that momentum. We expect and intend to do very well here in New York."
Sanders said his campaign has cut significantly into Clinton’s delegate lead, and added that he believes this part of the calendar favors him because the states moving forward have a more progressive outlook.
Despite winning the caucus vote by a margin of 55.7 percent to 44.3 percent, Sanders wound up receiving the same number of delegates as Clinton, both receiving seven. This is because delegates are assigned in each of three categories -– at-large, party leaders and elected officials, and congressional district -– on a "fractional" basis according to the vote, and then the fractions are rounded off to whole numbers.
The Clinton campaign congratulated Sanders on the "spirited campaign" in Wyoming, but pointed out that both sides came out of the race with the same number of delegates.
"Outperforming expectations, Hillary Clinton tied in pledged delegates today and now leads Senator Sanders by approximately 220 pledged delegates nationwide," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said. "Thanks to the help of thousands of volunteers, Hillary is winning the popular vote by almost 2.4 million and has a nearly insurmountable lead in pledged delegates that will become harder and harder to overcome after each contest."
Next, the race moves back to the East Coast. In 10 days, Hillary Clinton and Sanders will face off in the New York primary election.
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