Sen. Bernie Sanders won Oregon's Democratic presidential primary Tuesday night while front-runner Hillary Clinton appeared to have notched a narrow victory in Kentucky, a split decision preventing the former secretary of state from turning her full attention and resources to battling Donald Trump.
The outcomes do not dramatically change the Democratic delegate count and the former secretary of state remains on track to clinch the nomination on June 7 in the New Jersey primary. But Sanders' strong performances threaten to expose Clinton's weaknesses before she takes on Trump in the fall.
With 77 percent of precincts reporting in Oregon, Sanders led Clinton 54 percent to 46 percent, a difference of just over 43,000 votes.
“We just won Oregon, and we’re going to win California,” the Vermont senator told supporters in Carson, Calif., where he vowed to “take our fight” to July's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Sanders' victory was his 21st of the election cycle and his 11th in the past 17 contests. The win also broke Sanders' streak of eight straight losses in so-called "closed primaries", where only registered Democrats can vote.
With 99 percent of the precincts reporting in Kentucky, Clinton led Sanders by just over 1,900 votes out of more than 423,000 that were cast. Though the race remained too close to call, the Clinton campaign claimed victory in the commonwealth late Tuesday.
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According to an Associated Press tally, Clinton and Sanders each received 27 of Kentucky's 55 Democratic delegates, with one delegate to be awarded to the statewide winner. In Oregon, Sanders had won at least 28 of the Beaver State's 61 Democratic delegates, with Clinton winning at least 24 and nine other delegates outstanding.
Clinton currently has 2,291 pledged delegates and superdelegates to Sanders' 1,528. She requires a total of 2,383 to clinch the Democratic nomination.
Clinton repeatedly tried to turn the focus to Trump while campaigning in Kentucky over the weekend, calling the billionaire real estate mogul a "loose cannon" and saying she had "never heard such reckless, risky talk from somebody about to be a nominee for president than I’ve heard from Donald Trump when it comes to nuclear weapons."
For his part, Trump taunted Clinton on Twitter shortly after the polls closed in Kentucky Tuesday night.
In Oregon's Republican primary, Trump faced no active opposition in winning 67 percent of the vote. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz received 17 and 16 percent of the vote respectively, as more than 104,000 ballots were cast for Trump's former rivals.
Trump won at least 17 of Oregon's 28 Republican delegates, with Cruz and Kasich each receiving at least three and five other delegates outstanding. Trump now has 1,160 delegates, just 77 away from the threshold needed to clinch the GOP nomination.
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