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Live Blog: Appalachia Tuesday Part West Virginia Primary

The next two Tuesdays will provide returns from the nation’s Coal Country.  Exit Polls are available from today’s Democratic Primary in West Virginia.  West Virginia is one of the nation’s white, working class strongholds.

The following is reportable as “preliminary” exit poll results from the West Virginia Democratic primary. Please note that exit poll results can and do change as additional data come in – sometimes substantially. Check back for updates.

The highest level of economic concern in any Democratic primary this year and greater-than-usual turnout among men, whites, political independents and critics of President Obama characterized Hillary Clinton’s challenges in the West Virginia primary, her overall lead in delegates notwithstanding.

Extraordinary economic stress in the state was evident in preliminary exit poll results:

• Six in 10 voters said they were very worried about the direction of the nation’s economy in the next few years, by far the highest level of economy worry in a Democratic primary this year – far above the average, 40 percent, and rivaling the customary level seen in Republican primaries.

• Nearly six in 10 said the economy and jobs was the most important issue in their vote, again by far the highest in any Democratic contest this year.

• A majority in the state thought trade with other countries takes away more U.S. jobs than it creates, vs. only a little more than a third who said it creates more jobs. The division has been much closer, 45-39 percent, in previous states where the question has been asked.

These economically aggrieved voters not only were far more numerous in West Virginia than in other Democratic primaries, they also were much more supportive of Bernie Sanders here than elsewhere. Among anti-trade voters and those very worried about the economy, more than six in 10 voted for Sanders, according to preliminary exit poll results, as did a majority of those focused on the economy and jobs.

Coal workers: The state’s depressed coal industry is a key reason for its economic woes, and three in 10 West Virginia Democratic primary voters said there was a coal worker in their household. Perhaps reflecting Clinton’s gaffe about creating jobs “because we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” more than six in 10 of these coal household voters went for Sanders.

Race: West Virginia also was a tough state for Clinton demographically. Whites accounted for nine in 10 primary voters in preliminary exit poll results, far above the 61 percent they’ve averaged across the 2016 Democratic primaries. And the exit poll indicated that Sanders did better among whites in West Virginia than his even split with Clinton in this group in previous contests.

Gender: Women have outnumbered men by 58-42 percent overall in previous contests, a tremendous boost to Clinton – but in West Virginia, the advantage in turnout among women was smaller. Sanders also outperformed his usual numbers among women.

Party: Completing the demographics trifecta, political independents accounted for a third of voters in West Virginia in preliminary exit poll results, well above the average to date, 22 percent. Sanders took seven in 10 of these voters, slightly better than usual.

Obama: Further, only about quarter of Democratic primary voters in West Virginia said they wanted next president to continue Obama’s policies, a key group for Clinton to date; that compares with 54 percent on average in previous contests this year. An additional quarter wanted more liberal policies, and four in 10 wanted less liberal policies, roughly three times the average this year. Both non-Obama groups favored Sanders in today’s primary.

Twenty-nine delegates are at stake in today’s primary on the Democratic side.  Bernie Sanders has been projected to win

HUNTINGTON, WV - APRIL 26: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders addresses the crowd during a campaign rally at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena,  April 26, 2016 in Huntington, West Virginia. Sanders is preparing for West Virginia's May 10th primary.    (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)
HUNTINGTON, WV – APRIL 26: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders addresses the crowd during a campaign rally at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena, April 26, 2016 in Huntington, West Virginia. Sanders is preparing for West Virginia’s May 10th primary. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)

the state but will not make any substantial progress in delegate count.  

Thirty-four delegates are at stake in today’s primary on the Republican side in West Virigina.  Donald Trump is the projected winner there. Donald Trump is technically the remaining candidate but we there are other’s on the ballot and we do have this news.  Nebraska (sigh, it figures) might reinvigorate Cruz.  Nebraska Republicans also vote today.

Ted Cruz floated the possibility of restarting his presidential campaign if he wins Nebraska’s GOP primary on Tuesday and avoided saying whether he supports Donald Trump‘s bid for president.

So, join us for the analysis and pundit-bashing!!!

Comments

96 responses to “Live Blog: Appalachia Tuesday Part West Virginia Primary”

  1. dakinikat Avatar

    Poll: Despite Bernie Sanders’ Crowds, Hillary Clinton Ahead In Oregon

    http://www.opb.org/news/series/election-2016/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-oregon-poll/

  2. roofingbird Avatar

    Just .1% reporting in WV with Clinton 50.6% to Sanders 41.3%–2 precincts.

    1. roofingbird Avatar

      Sorry, I meant counties.

    2. roofingbird Avatar

      Trump is ahead @ 71.6% of the vote.

      1. dakinikat Avatar

        That’s pretty amazing!

        1. roofingbird Avatar

          Yeah, he dropped of a little to 69%, but considering he told folks to stay home and not vote, you really have to wonder. Again, is it something to do with the early voting?

          1. dakinikat Avatar

            Could be …

    3. dakinikat Avatar

      That won’t give him much of a delegate advantage.

      1. roofingbird Avatar

        That is what I am hoping!

  3. roofingbird Avatar

    I’m going to guess that the returns at this point reflect the 100,000 early voters. We have 3 more counties starting to report, so it is now, Clinton 45.8% vs Sanders 45%.

  4. dakinikat Avatar

    Looks like Trump voters are voting for Bernie

    Check out @deanbarker’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/deanbarker/status/730191071498645504?s=09

  5. roofingbird Avatar

    We flipped leaders for a minute but we are at 1.5% reporting and it’s Clinton 47.1% vs Sanders 43.7%.

  6. roofingbird Avatar

    Trump has been declared winner by Wapo at 1.9% reporting and 69.2%. He has 11,373 votes do far, about the same as Sanders. I wonder about crossover based on the numbers and the fact that we thought WV might go Sanders anyway.

  7. roofingbird Avatar

    2.2% reporting: Clinton 45.8% vs Sanders 45.3%

  8. roofingbird Avatar

    No reporting on NE yet. WV is 6.1% reporting, now, Sanders 47.7% vs Clinton 43.3%

    1. roofingbird Avatar

      it makes sense Ohio Co just came in at 30% reporting and a 20% lead for Sanders.

  9. roofingbird Avatar

    There could be some Cruz and Kasich people voting for Sanders.

    1. dakinikat Avatar

      Trump’s if you check exit polls

  10. jacqueline532 Avatar

    According to Politico, Sanders has declared himself the winner in a fundraising e-mail, even though it’s still considered too close to call.

    http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/west-virginia-democratic-primary-2016-222974

    1. dakinikat Avatar

      He’s lost it

  11. roofingbird Avatar

    10.6% reporting Sanders 48.8% vs Clinton 41.6%.

  12. roofingbird Avatar

    Still nothing out of NE. Did they just close?

    1. dakinikat Avatar

      Yup

  13. janicen Avatar
    janicen

    So Trump is going to win the remaining primaries because nobody else is in the race. Where’s all the whining? Where’s the media whining that this is boring and it’s a coronation? That’s what we heard when Hillary was ahead of the pack.

      1. janicen Avatar
        janicen

        Exactly.

    1. dakinikat Avatar

      Trump wins Nebraska

      1. roofingbird Avatar

        Yeah, 9.6% reporting and he has 59.4%

        1. dakinikat Avatar

          No surprise from me. It’s a wackobird state. Hated living there every minute of it

          1. roofingbird Avatar

            I imagined, driving through there that the west side would be interesting.

            1. dakinikat Avatar

              Yes. It’s a vast grass wasteland with some rock formations here and there. Sandhills are interesting.

              1. roofingbird Avatar

                Lol.

  14. roofingbird Avatar

    Sanders is pulling away, 12.9% reporting: Sanders 49.3% vs Clinton 40.9%.

  15. roofingbird Avatar

    15.3% reporting: Sanders 49.3% vs Clinton 40.6%

  16. jacqueline532 Avatar

    OFF TOPIC!! But it’s so crazy making. I can’t get Mika B out of my head opining that if Hillary would just ACT a certain way, then people would see she is AUTHENTIC. The cognitive dissonance is deafening.

    1. roofingbird Avatar

      Yep, demons in the hogs. Send them over!

    2. NW Luna Avatar
      NW Luna

      I agree. If these people would take a fresh look and listen it would be amazing. But I get the impression they write their commentary ahead of time.

  17. roofingbird Avatar

    And we have fighter jets scrambling in the South China Seas. We sent them there in April.
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-usa-china-idUSKCN0Y10DM

    1. dakinikat Avatar

      Great … Those islands again?

      1. roofingbird Avatar

        Apparently. That area is going to be rough. Can you imagine Trump there?

        1. NW Luna Avatar
          NW Luna

          Yes, and it gives me nightmares.

    2. roofingbird Avatar

      Correction: we sent jets there in April, but China scrambled theirs after we sent a missile ship up next to their hand built sand lot.

  18. dakinikat Avatar

    Clinton will be running ads in Kentucky. They must think she could win it.

  19. roofingbird Avatar

    Wapo has declared Sanders the winner, 25.2% reporting: he at 49.7% vs Clinton 39.6%

    1. dakinikat Avatar

      Think it looks like he nets 3

      1. roofingbird Avatar

        Wapo says there are 29 to be had. I see 14 for him and 10 for her on their board.

  20. William Avatar
    William

    Here’s some pundit bashing. The pundits are uniformly awful. I could be specific, but there are too many examples. Among the many things that the networks foolishly or deliberately do wrong, is extrapolate from individual state results. WV is a terrible state for Hillary at this stage; there are few Democrats left in it; she wants to transition the country from fossil fuels to alternative energy. Further,many Trump people crossed over to vote for Sanders, as it is an open primary.

    In the meantime, Trump gets lauded for being authentic, and connecting with anger, etc, etc. So did all the fascists in Europe in the 1920’s; they connected with unhappy and angry people. But they were fascists, and they murdered millions of people, and took away basic civil rights for the people they didn’t murder. So exploiting people’s anger is not a plus. If the media cared to, or had the insight, they could actually talk about Trump’s nostrums, which if effected, would destroy our economy. Unfortunately, it probably wouldn’t destroy the economy of the pundits, which is what they are counting on, as they continue to try to enable this truly awful candidate.

    1. roofingbird Avatar

      I don’t know if it’s Trump people, William, he has the most votes, by about 9400 over Sanders. Cruz has surprisingly little, 8338 votes.

      1. William Avatar
        William

        There are going to be about 50,000 more Democratic votes than Republican votes in WV, even though it is very Republican now. Of course some of it is due to Republicans not having a race any longer. But pretty clearly, there are a number of Republicans and right-wing indies (most indies in WV are right-wing) crossing over to vote for Sanders. Apparently an exit poll showed that many Sanders voters in this primary are voting for Trump in the general election. If that’s the case, why are they voting in the Democratic Primary?

        1. roofingbird Avatar

          On some level this has to be about bleeding campaign money from Clinton.

          1. William Avatar
            William

            Absolutely. I’m sure that right-wing groups are still funneling money to Sanders. And no one calls for Sanders to leave the race, while every day Hillary was asked to leave by some ranking Democrat, back in 2008. Where is Pelosi now; she was very vocal about this then.

            1. roofingbird Avatar

              Yep.

              If the Dems can get the vote out, like those 100 thousand that signed up in OR, they might get more downticket candidates.

  21. roofingbird Avatar

    WV is 41.9% reporting with Sanders 50.5% vs Clinton 39%. Still the same delegate count, but sometimes Wapo gets behind on that.

  22. roofingbird Avatar

    49.5% reporting: Sanders 50.9% vs Clinton 38.2%

  23. roofingbird Avatar

    59% reporting: Sanders 51$ vs Clinton 36.8%. Wapo shows the same delegate count.

  24. roofingbird Avatar

    60.5% reporting, same percentages as above but the delegate count has changed. Sanders 16 vs Clinton 11.

    1. dakinikat Avatar

      Hmm. Had to turn TV off. Sanders speech was on.

      1. roofingbird Avatar

        Yeah, see, this is why we have free TV and watch end season NCIS, there is no Sanders in NCIS land.

        1. Jslat Avatar
          Jslat

          Go Gibbs! 😀

      2. ANonOMouse Avatar
        ANonOMouse

        Me too……If I have to listen to the 99% spiel one more time I might stroke. This thing can’t come to an end soon enough to suit me.

  25. Jslat Avatar
    Jslat

    Clinton wins Neb open primary today. No delegates awarded since they were awarded in the Mar 5 caucus.

    http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/05/clinton-wins-nebraska-democratic-primary-223042

    1. William Avatar
      William

      If all states were caucuses, Sanders would be the nominee by a mile. If all states were primaries, Hillary would win about 47 of them. Therein we see the ludicrousness of caucuses. One of these days, the Democrats are going to end up with a Kardashian as the nominee, simply because caucuses disenfranchise 90% of their voters.

      1. NW Luna Avatar
        NW Luna

        I think it’s more like 90%.

        Even the Republicans in my state switched from using caucuses entirely to using mostly the results of the primaries. They did that after Pat Robertson won the Republican caucuses state-wide one year, and the party bigwigs had horror fits.

        1. NW Luna Avatar
          NW Luna

          Not that primaries eliminate scary doofuses — case in point: Trump.

    2. dakinikat Avatar

      Yea. It’s a weird state, isn’t it?

  26. roofingbird Avatar

    71% reporting: Sanders 51.1% vs Clinton 36.3%. Wapo shows the same delegate count.

  27. roofingbird Avatar

    75.1% reporting: Sanders 51.2% vs Clinton 36.4%. Wapo shows the same delegate count. There are 12.4% other, which seems a little high.

  28. roofingbird Avatar

    80.3% reporting Sanders 51.4% vs Clinton 36.1%. Same delegate count.

  29. roofingbird Avatar

    There are still 5 counties uncounted.

  30. roofingbird Avatar

    Trump has 76.6% of the Repub vote with 129,154 votes.

  31. roofingbird Avatar

    So it’s late on the east coast and this part if going slowly. I’ll check back later.

    1. dakinikat Avatar

      Thx for helping out!

  32. William Avatar
    William

    If CSPAN shows it again, try to watch the interview with forieign policy expert Max Boot, who is a lifelong Republican and who worked for Romney and Rubio. He absolutely hates Trump, and thinks he is the most unqualified and dangerous candidate in history. He has never voted for a Democrat in his life. He is truly frightened of a Trump presidency, and thinks that Hillary would be far better. I hope he and his comments get wide coverage.

    1. dakinikat Avatar

      BB and I don’t think he should get any classified briefings although my understanding is the Obama decided what he can see. He’s likely to blurt something.

      1. NW Luna Avatar
        NW Luna

        I don’t think Trump should get classified briefings, either. No way is Trump able to keep anything important to himself. The urge to boast about it will be too strong for him, and he doesn’t believe in restrictions on what he says. That’s not even taking possible cognitive issues into account.

      2. roofingbird Avatar

        I would worry that he would actually get half a brain about the information and start telegraphing a change in his behavior.

      3. joanelle Avatar
        joanelle

        My husband, who is pretty much non-political, said last night that he believes that the Democratic Party hasn’t changed its position from 2008. When I asked what he meant he said. They didn’t want a woman POTUS then but have a quandary now. Because Sanders is a terrible alternative. They should have let Hillary in last time and run Obama now when he’s had more experience.
        If they wanted her to win this time out, they could have given her the support her party should be giving her.
        Where is her team support?

      4. Riverbird Avatar

        I agree he’s likely to blurt out something. One problem: I understand that Hillary and Donald have to receive exactly the same classified briefings. She can’t be given any information that he doesn’t get.

        1. dakinikat Avatar

          She gets briefed already as an ex sec of State and Bill as ex Pres. Think she’d still get them.

      5. Fannie Avatar
        Fannie

        There are laws about spouses being foreign born, so that has yet to be talked about. He will only get what Pres. Obama wants him to see.

  33. roofingbird Avatar

    WV is 91.8% reporting with Sanders 51.4% vs Clinton 36.% Delegate count 16 to 11. Trump has earned 76.7% of his vote. He has 25,373 more votes than Sanders.

    1. Woman Voter (@WomanVote) Avatar

      Bakari Sellers put it in perspective, he said in 2012 a convicted felon ran against Obama and won with 41% of the vote. Also, Sanders voters say they will support Trump in the general.

      1. Fannie Avatar
        Fannie

        Wonder why he isn’t making this issue CLEAR. Let me be clear, he says.

  34. NW Luna Avatar
    NW Luna

    If they want a President to be less liberal than Obama, I smell a bunch of Republicans voting as “Democrats.”

    1. Fannie Avatar
      Fannie

      yup, been going on for some time.

  35. Ron4Hills Avatar
    Ron4Hills

    I saw the headline that said a third of West Virginia Dems say they will support Trump in the general.

    I suspect those who frack rodents at work.

    Also, I am tired to death of Weakened @ Bernie’s.

    I cannot allow him to be on my television for a second.

  36. Ron4Hills Avatar
    Ron4Hills

    I am also sick of hearing about how Bern thinks he would do against Trump.

    He can’t run the damned country.

    He is no more qualified than Trump.

    1. Riverbird Avatar

      I can’t bear to listen to Bernie.

      1. Joanelle Avatar
        Joanelle

        It’s like fingernails on a blackboard

        1. dakinikat Avatar

          It is.

          1. NW Luna Avatar
            NW Luna

            Yep.

  37. ANonOMouse Avatar
    ANonOMouse

    What we’re hearing from bernie are the last gasps of a dying candidacy. He has no selling points. He won last night because GOP voters crossed over to vote from him and they won’t cross back to the Dem ticket in the Fall election. I hope this trend of GOP’er crossing over to vote for Bernie & vote against Hillary because Donald has clinched doesn’t continue. It’s ugly BUT it makes the case better than I ever could for Closed Primaries.

    1. Ron4Hills Avatar
      Ron4Hills

      Spot on.

      Nebraska makes the case for ending the arcane and idiotic practice of caucusing.

      Hills won, but zero delegates.

    2. dakinikat Avatar

      Ayup

  38. Jslat Avatar
    Jslat

    Alert: there was a hacking warning when I just tried to open Blue Nation Review.

    1. NW Luna Avatar
      NW Luna

      Damn Berniebro rats. WWTSDQ?