The 2016 Washington Democratic presidential caucuses were held on March 26, 2016, in the U.S. state of

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

as one of the Democratic Party's primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election. On the same day, Democratic caucuses were held in

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and

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. While the Republican primary was later held on May 24, 2016. Sanders overwhelmingly won the March 26 caucus which had about 230,000 participants, winning 72.7% of the state's legislative district delegates to Clinton's 27.1%, giving Sanders a net gain of 47 pledged delegates. Later, the state also held a non-binding primary vote on May 24, in which Clinton received about 52% of the vote – although this has no actual bearing on the delegate count for the nomination.

Opinion polling

Results

Analysis

Sanders scored a landslide victory in the Washington caucus. His victory did not come as a huge surprise, since

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as a city had donated the most money per capita to the Bernie Sanders for President Campaign, and Washington state (particularly Seattle) has a history of electing more left-leaning politicians including other self-proclaimed

socialists Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...

to office. Sanders won all counties in the state on the day of the caucus. Clinton had lost the Washington caucus eight years earlier to

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

. At a rally in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

on March 26, Sanders told supporters "We knew from day one that politically we were going to have a hard time in the Deep South, but we knew things were going to improve when we headed west." Clinton won the Washington Democratic Primary, but lost the caucus. The same was true with Nebraska. She won the Primary and lost the caucus. In both states, despite the primary being non-binding it had significantly higher turnout than the caucuses, fueling criticism that caucuses are undemocratic and a form of

voter suppression Voter suppression is the discouragement or prevention of specific groups of people from voting or registering to vote. It is distinguished from political campaigning in that campaigning attempts to change likely voting behavior by changing the o ...

. For the 2020 nominating process, Washington and Nebraska both replaced their caucuses with binding primaries to allocate the states' delegates.

References

{{2016 Democratic primaries

Democratic caucuses

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Opinion polling

Results

Analysis

See also

References