Continuing a string of victories across the West, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont won the Wyoming caucuses on Saturday, a symbolic triumph, if not a race-altering one, in the last Democratic contest before the April 19 New York primary.
Mr. Sanders beat Hillary Clinton statewide by about 11 percentage points, though the end result was effectively a tie, as each candidate took seven of Wyoming’s 14 pledged delegates, the fewest any state had to offer. Mrs. Clinton’s nationwide lead remained at 219.
But after Mr. Sanders’s recent big victories in Washington State, Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii and Wisconsin, it was more evidence of Mrs. Clinton’s weaknesses among white and liberal voters as the race moves to major primaries in New York and elsewhere in the Northeast.
“We just won Wyoming,” Mr. Sanders said, pausing unexpectedly while speaking at a rally at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in Queens.
His supporters leapt to their feet and gave him a standing ovation. He thanked Wyoming voters, but said with a smile, “There are probably more people in this room than there are in Wyoming.”
..
Mr. Sanders’s missives about a corporate-driven political system touched a nerve among Wyoming voters like John Hess, a 28-year-old veteran who spoke up for Mr. Sanders at Sheridan County’s caucus and sounded not unlike the candidate himself.
“How can an average working citizen make an informed decision about health care,” he asked, “when the for-profit health services industry is blasting ideals on your TV and radio that support their own profits over ideals that would increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care industry?”