Hillary Clinton is widely expected to clinch the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, when voters in six states, including New Jersey and California, go the polls. But could it happen even sooner?
It may be far-fetched, but two lesser-watched contests this weekend, in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, could put Clinton over the top – if she wins very lopsided victories over Bernie Sanders and picks up the remaining superdelegates from the two territories along the way.
Clinton needs 70 more delegates to reach the threshold of 2,383, after which she and much of the news media will consider her the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee.
There are seven unpledged delegates at stake in Saturday’s caucuses in the U.S. Virgin Islands and an additional 60 up for grabs Sunday in the primary in Puerto Rico. There are also three superdelegates from the two territories who have yet to announce their support for Clinton or Sanders.
In other words, exactly the number she needs to clinch the nomination.
Sanders says such calculations are premature because he thinks the votes of superdelegates shouldn’t be counted until they are cast at the Democratic convention in July. In a last-ditch bid to win the nomination, he is trying to persuade scores of superdelegates who support Clinton to swing his way.
So how likely is it that Clinton could dominate in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico?
She is favored to win in both places, but in order to shut out Sanders in the delegate count, she would need to keep him from reaching 15 percent support in both contests. Both campaigns say they don’t think that’s likely.
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