Clinton captures West Virginia primary, says campaign isn't over yet

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| Wednesday, May 14, 2008 9:23 AM CDT | () comments

(AP PHOTO) Hillary Clinton greets voters at a farmers market in Charleston, W.Va. She won the West Virginia presidential primary Tuesday.

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The Washington Post

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton routed U.S. Sen. Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary Tuesday, scoring one of her most lopsided victories of the long campaign even as she continued to battle overwhelming odds in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton’s easy victory in a state that has slipped away from Democrats in the past two elections added fresh ammunition to her claim that she is better positioned than Obama to capture critical swing states in November. But the primary win may have come too late to have a significant impact on the trajectory of a nomination battle in which Obama has an almost insurmountable lead in delegates.

Clinton advisers hoped the size of Clinton’s victory and signs of dissatisfaction with Obama among West Virginia voters would reopen a conversation about who is the stronger Democrat to take on U.S. Sen. John McCain, the

presumptive Republican nominee, in the general election.

They also hoped the results would tamp down talk that Clinton should consider dropping out of the nomination contest before the primaries end on June 3 to speed the process of uniting Democrats.

Clinton was winning by a margin of about 2 to 1 in the popular vote in West Virginia. With 28 pledged delegates at stake, that margin would produce a net gain for Clinton of an estimated 12 delegates. That would only partially cut into the gains Obama has made in superdelegates since he easily won North Carolina and narrowly lost Indiana a week ago.

Former Democratic Party general chairman Roy Romer, who was handpicked for that job by former president Bill Clinton, announced his support for Obama Tuesday.

Hillary Clinton claimed victory shortly after the polls closed Tuesday night.

Saying the nomination battle “isn’t over yet,” she told cheering supporters in Charleston that, as a result of her victory, “I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard.”

Clinton argued that, by winning in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, New Hampshire and now West Virginia, she has demonstrated strength where it counts. “The White House is won in the swing states, and I am winning the swing states,” she said.

Clinton also renewed her call to seat the delegations from Florida and Michigan and to include those delegates in the overall count for the nomination. “Under the rules of our party,” she said, “when you include all 50 states, the number of delegates needed to win is 2,209, and neither of us has reached that threshold yet.”

Obama did not appear publicly after the polls closed. His campaign has said in the past that he has a greater ability than Clinton to expand the electoral map in November.

But the results in West Virginia, coupled with exit polls that showed Democratic primary voters there with significant reservations about him, suggest that he could have a difficult time winning the Mountain State in the fall.

Five primaries remain: Oregon and Kentucky next Tuesday, Puerto Rico on June 1, and Montana and South Dakota on June 3. Together, those five contests will award 189 delegates.

Even if Clinton were to win the remaining five contests with 65 percent of the vote, she would still trail Obama by roughly 100 pledged delegates. She is favored to win Kentucky and Puerto Rico, and Obama is favored in Oregon, Montana and South Dakota.

West Virginia Exit Polling

Only a narrow majority of Democratic primary voters said they would support Obama in the general election if he were to get the party’s nod. Fewer than half called the senator from Illinois honest and trustworthy, and a similarly low number said he is in sync with their values.

The controversy continuing to swirl around Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., appeared to play a role. About half of West Virginia voters said they think Obama shares at least some of Wright’s views, and those voters went for Clinton by a margin of nearly 7 to 1.