Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is projected to win the Oregon primary, keeping his slim presidential hopes alive.
Sanders will win the majority of the state’s 61 pledged delegates, cutting slightly into Hillary Clinton’s lead.
{mosads}He still needs to win about two-thirds of the remaining unpledged delegates up for grabs between now and the last contest in the District of Columbia on June 14. Clinton entered Tuesday with 1,716 pledged delegates, to Sanders’s 1,433.
And even if Sanders catches Clinton in unpledged delegates, he would still need to convince scores of superdelegates to abandon Clinton at the national convention.
Polling was scarce heading into the contest, but Sanders was favored to win in a state where he campaigned heavily.
Oregon has a large base of white liberal voters, and Sanders won the caucuses in neighboring Washington state by 45 points early this year.
Still, it was an impressive victory for Sanders, who had struggled in closed primaries that only allow for registered Democrats to vote. Oregon’s was a closed primary.