HELENA, Mont. – Bernie Sanders has defeated Hillary Clinton in Montana’s Democratic presidential primary election. Sanders also won in North Dakota.
Sanders rallied his Montana supporters last month after becoming the first presidential candidate to make campaign stops in the state.
Montana is generally an afterthought in the race for the nomination because of its low delegate count and itselections happening late on the primary election calendar.
But this year, as in 2008, the candidates’ fight for each vote brought Montana back into relevance.
A week after Sanders spoke in Billings and Missoula, former President Bill Clinton appeared in Billings as his wife’s surrogate. Hillary Clinton also has opened multiple campaign offices in the state.
Twenty-one of the party’s delegates will be pledged proportionally based on the final results. Six more are superdelegates who can back the candidate they choose.
Sanders is vowing to continue his quest for the White House, telling supporters in California that he will fight on to compete in next week’s primary in Washington, D.C.
Sanders says at a rollicking rally in Santa Monica, Calif., that after that election, “we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia.”
The Democratic National Convention takes place in Philadelphia next month.
That’s where Hillary Clinton will accept the Democratic nomination for president. She has the delegates needed to claim the nomination, and declared victory on Tuesday night in New York.
Sanders says, “I am pretty good at arithmetic. I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight, but we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate.”