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Race a Major Factor in Clinton's W.Va. Win But Obama Still Ahead
Compiled by the DiversityInc staff
May 14, 2008
Sen. Hillary Clinton gained her largest primary win of the season yesterday as she won West Virginia in a lopsided victory. So what does it mean?
Not much, according to the political pundits who say Sen. Barack Obama's march to the Democratic nomination is all but inevitable despite his drubbing in West Virginia. Clinton only picked up a net gain of 20 delegates in West Virginia and still trails Obama in both delegates and super delegates.
The West Virginia results surprised few; most political analysts felt Clinton had West Virginia long sewn up, with its predominantly white, blue-collar, working-class base. Observers believed that Clinton would stay in the race long enough to make one last pitch to super delegates. She's now vowed to remain in the race until the last primary is held on June 3.
Race played a large factor in Clinton's overwhelming victory, reports The New York Times. Two in 10 white West Virginia voters said race was an important factor in their decision making, and more than eight in 10 ultimately cast their votes for Clinton, according to exit surveys.
The state's demographics played heavily in her favor. The Times reports that 95 percent of the Democratic primary voters were white, 70 percent did not graduate from college and 54 percent had incomes lower than $50,000. Nearly a quarter of the voters were 60 or older, reports MSNBC.com
Clinton came under fire last week for comments many described as racially divisive when she explained why she felt she offered Democrats the best hope in a faceoff against Sen. John McCain.
"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA Today last week. Citing an Associated Press article, she said Obama's "support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."
In response to those comments, the online grassroots organization ColorOfChange urged its members to phone the Democratic national headquarters and protest what it felt were race-baiting remarks by Clinton, reports The New York Times.
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