Sanders holds slim lead in state primary

SPOKANE – Presidential hopefuls Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders dueled to a virtual tie in Washington’s Democratic primary Tuesday night.

At press time, Sanders held a slim 2,084 vote led over the former vice president, garnering 32.70 percent of the statewide vote to Biden’s 32.49 percent. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg received 11.05 percent of the ballots cast, 126,093 even though he suspended his campaign last week.

In Spokane County, the results were almost exactly the opposite, with Biden holding a 248 vote lead, receiving 19,435 votes (31.19 percent) to Sanders’ 19,207 votes (30.82) percent. Bloomberg was receiving 15.09 percent, or 9,401 votes.

On the Republican side, President Donald Trump was running unopposed an as expected receiving the lion’s share of the votes, garnering 523,409 of 531,271 ballots cast statewide and 54,631 of 55,322 in Spokane County, running at 98.75 percent.

At press time Tuesday night, Kittitas and Klickitat counties had not reported their election results.

Of the seven states up for grabs nationwide on Tuesday, Biden won three outright: Missouri, Mississippi and Michigan. Biden held a nearly eight percentage point lead in Idaho while Sanders was comfortably on his way to a victory in North Dakota, leading 39.7 to 26.2 percent.

A spokeswoman for the Sanders campaign in Spokane County could not be reached at press time. Biden spokesman Vedant Patel said returns were still coming in, and that the campaign generally doesn’t comment on election results, referring to the former Vice President’s remarks at a campaign rally in Philadelphia as the appropriate place for comments.

“I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and their passion. We share a common goal, and together we’ll defeat Donald Trump. We’ll defeat him together,” Biden told supporters. “We’re going to bring this nation together,” Biden said. “We’re regenerating a Democratic base, the Democratic Party.”

A total of 1,019,709 votes in Washington Tuesday night were cast statewide for 13 Democratic candidates, of which only Biden, Sanders and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard remain in the race.

Overall voter turnout in Spokane County was running 35.07 percent, just ahead of the 33.97 percent statewide figure.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.