Bernie Sanders swept all three Democratic caucuses Saturday — scoring victories in Hawaii, Alaska and delegate-rich Washington state.
While the underdog’s West Coast wins are not nearly enough to trip up former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's path to the nomination, his wide margin of victory provides his campaign with a burst of momentum heading into a 10-day break before the next primary contest. The Vermont senator's big victories are also typically followed by a considerable fundraising bump.
Sanders was victorious in Washington state's caucuses 72.7 percent to Clinton's 27.1 percent and won Alaska's caucuses by a landslide, defeating Clinton 81.6 percent to 18.4 percent. At 4 a.m. Sunday, with 87.8 percent of precincts reporting, Sanders was declared the winner in Hawaii, leading Clinton 70.6 percent to 29.2 percent.
Saturday’s results figure to mark Sanders’ best moment in weeks, as he looks to turn a string of strong performances in March — starting with runaway wins in Idaho and Utah on Tuesday — into a spark that pushes him closer to Clinton, despite her lead of roughly 300 pledged delegates. Even so, his bid to gain momentum heading into April was dealt a considerable blow by Clinton's convincing win in much larger Arizona, the biggest delegate haul of the week.
While the front-runner held no public campaign events during Saturday’s voting — and had none scheduled at all for the Easter weekend — Sanders was rallying in Wisconsin, another progressive state that is set to host the next primary, on April 5.
“We are on a path toward victory,” Sanders told a Saturday evening crowd in Madison, referring to his Alaska and Washington wins. “It is hard for anybody to deny that our campaign has the momentum."