WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton sought to avoid primary losses in Kentucky and Oregon on Tuesday, aiming to blunt the momentum of challenger Bernie Sanders ahead of a likely general election matchup against Republican Donald Trump.
Clinton enters Tuesday’s primaries with a commanding lead of nearly 300 pledged delegates over Sanders and a dominant advantage among party officials and elected leaders called superdelegates. She remains on track to clinch the nomination against the Vermont senator in early June but is trying to avoid a trail of primary defeats that could expose weaknesses before she takes on Trump.
Democrats were holding primaries in Kentucky and Oregon as new questions over party unity emerged in the contest between Clinton and Sanders after a divisive weekend state party convention in Nevada put a spotlight on relations between the two sides. During a party event in Las Vegas, supporters of Sanders tossed chairs and made death threats against the Nevada party chairwoman arguing the party leadership rigged the results of the convention in favor of Clinton.
Trump was competing in the sole GOP contest in Oregon, unopposed as he was poised to pad his lock on the Republican nomination. The billionaire businessman picked up nine delegates on Tuesday in Guam, which held its territorial convention in March, and had 1,143 delegates heading into the Oregon contest, fewer than 100 delegates short of the 1,237 he needs to clinch the nomination.
In Kentucky, the former secretary of state visited black churches, a small-town diner and held rallies on Sunday and Monday in an effort to break up Sanders’ momentum after his recent victories in Indiana and West Virginia.