March 26, 2016
Contact: Michael Briggs

Sanders Wins Alaska, Washington

MADISON, Wis. – On a roll, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders won the caucuses on Saturday in the state of Washington, where he holds a double-digit lead over Hillary Clinton, and in Alaska, where he won in a landslide.

“We are on a path toward victory,” Sanders told a Saturday evening rally here in Wisconsin’s capital city.

“It is hard for anybody to deny that our campaign has the momentum,” he told more than 8,100 cheering supporters who filled an arena on the University of Wisconsin campus. He said the momentum building behind his campaign comes from big crowds at rallies, from overwhelming victories, from record turnouts at caucuses and primaries, from a grassroots campaign taking on the political establishment and from more than 2 million supporters who donated less than $30 apiece on average.

While the results were still being tabulated in Washington, Alaska and Hawaii, Saturday’s caucuses were expected to result in a big gain in pledged delegates for Sanders. In the past week alone, Sanders picked up delegates in Idaho, Utah and among Democrats abroad.

Moreover, in recent days he edged into a nationwide lead over Clinton in a major national poll conducted for Bloomberg Politics.

Sanders also consistently has fared much better than the former secretary of state in matchups with Republican White House hopefuls, including GOP front-runner Donald Trump. In a recent CNN/ORC poll, Clinton had a 12-point edge over Trump but Sanders outpolled him by 20 points. Sanders also was liked by more voters than U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Clinton tied Cruz and lost to Kasich.

Wisconsin is the next stop in the contest with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Eighty-six pledged delegates will be at stake in the April 5 primary election.

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RNC Statement On Last Night's Democrat Caucus Results

WASHINGTON - Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement on the results of Saturday’s Democrat caucuses:
 
“Hillary Clinton’s repeated stumbles at this stage of the race are another reminder of her deeply flawed candidacy. Winning only one out of six primaries and caucuses this week is an embarrassing performance for the Democrat front runner. At a time when the public’s concern about terrorism is growing, Hillary Clinton's glaring record of failure on fighting terrorism and her decision to set up a secret email server shows she recklessly jeopardized national security and can’t be trusted in the White House. Americans looking for new leadership will not get it from two candidates promising to rubber stamp more of the extreme Obama agenda. Only a Republican president will offer the course correction our country badly needs.”