Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton in the West Virginia Democratic primary on Tuesday while Republican Donald Trump won primaries in West Virginia and Nebraska. Sanders obtained 51 percent of the votes compared to 36 percent for Clinton.
Sanders and Trump won the trust of much poorer less-educated folks who felt like they’ve been unattended during the last decades, of those who have seen their wages stagnate, those who lack opportunities for up warding mobility and are seeing their life expectancies shorter. These two candidates promised to disrupt an economic model that hasn’t worked for them.
The promise of a “political revolution” is the reason why Bernie beat Hilary Clinton in yesterday’s West Virginia Democratic primary by 15.4 points. Sanders have won among self-identified moderate-to-conservative Democrats in both West Virginia and Oklahoma, the Washington Post reported.
Last night Sanders said at a rally in Salem, Ore, that in many states, including West Virginia and Oregon, working people are hurting.
“And what the people of West Virginia said tonight, and I believe the people of Oregon will say next week, is that we need an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1 percent,” he added.
Apparently, being liberal isn’t what is helping Bernie. Americans are voting for him because they believed that his “political revolution” will challenge the system that has put them in disadvantage.
Trump and Clinton
According to the polls, only 26 percent Democratic primary voters in West Virginia believe that the next president should follow Obama’s policies. Over half of the voters said that they would like more conservative policies.
Three in 10 Democratic primary voters affirmed that they or a family member works for the coal industry. And according to WaPo pollster Scott Clement, they favored Sanders by more than 24 points over Clinton, who’s facing criticism for saying that they’re planning to shut down a lot of coal miners and coal companies.
While Trump is focusing on trying to flip states in the Rust Belt, from Pennsylvania to Michigan and Ohio, Hilary is falling to reach working-class voters in economically-depressed areas.
Focus groups of swing voters seem to have listened to some warning signs for Democrats about Trump but are unsure whether to believe that his policies proposals would really benefit only the rich, a senior Democratic strategist who has been involved in the studies told the Plum Line’s Greg Sargent.
According to the Washington Post, even when Clinton beat Obama in West Virginia eight years ago, she’s now tied to him, which has helped her in many states but turned off many of her old supporters.
Source: The Washington Post