Ky. secretary of state: Clinton is ‘unofficial winner’ in primary

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is projected to win the Kentucky primary, according to Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. 

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday night with 99 percent of the votes counted, Grimes, a Clinton supporter, noted that the vote totals are considered unofficial until the end of May.

“The results tonight that you see from the secretary of state’s office all remain unofficial,” Grimes said. “I do believe though, based on what we’re seeing coming in, that Kentucky will remain in the ‘win’ column for Clinton.”

{mosads}Grimes was pressed about whether she is declaring Clinton the unofficial winner of the primary.

“That is what it looks like right now,” she said. “We have 99 percent of our precincts reporting based on the unofficial vote totals we are seeing, Hillary Clinton will be the unofficial nominee on behalf of the Democratic Party here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.” 

In a Tweet after Grimes’s comments, Clinton declared herself the winner:

We just won Kentucky! Thanks to everyone who turned out. We’re always stronger united. https://t.co/8qYPHIje8I pic.twitter.com/elNUP4nFoO

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 18, 2016

Rep. Sannie Overly, chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party in a statement congratulated Clinton “on an extremely close win here in Kentucky, and we’re excited about the energy she and Bernie Sanders have poured into the Commonwealth during the race.”

Clinton will win the slight majority of the state’s 55 pledged delegates as she moves closer to clinching the nomination. Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. but the margin was razor thin and the race was too close to call until after 10 p.m., when Grimes appeared on CNN to discuss the results.  

Clinton needed the win to change the narrative of Bernie Sanders winning another state. Although expected to take his 20th state in Oregon later Tuesday night, Sanders’s apparent loss in Kentucky would stop his streak at two straight wins, last week in West Virgina, the week before in Indiana.

 

Clinton poured resources into Kentucky in the hopes of staving off Sanders, holding five events in the state since Sunday. 

Speaking at a rally in Southern California late Tuesday, Sanders declared that he’s staying in the race “until the last ballot is cast.” He sought to spin the close contest as a victory for his campaign.

“In a closed primary, something I’m not all that enthusiastic about, where independents are not allowed to vote, where Secretary Clinton defeated President Obama by 250,000 votes in 2008, it appears tonight that we’re going to get half of the delegates from Kentucky,” he said.

Two key factors may have broken in Clinton’s favor in Kentucky. The state holds a closed primary where only Democrats can participate, a fact that likely hurt Sanders, who draws outsized support from independents.

 

And the state saw surprisingly low voter turnout early, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. 

 

The victory puts Clinton closer to clinching the party’s nomination. She entered Tuesday with 1,716 pledged delegates, to Sanders’s 1,433.

 

With support from party superdelegates included, Clinton is all but certain to clinch the nomination.