The 2016 Oklahoma Democratic presidential primary took place on March 1 in the U.S. state of

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

as one of the Democratic Party's primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election. On the same day, dubbed " Super Tuesday," Democratic primaries were held in ten other states plus

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, while the Republican Party held primaries in eleven states including their own Oklahoma primary.

Opinion polling

Results

Primary date: March 1, 2016
National delegates: 91

Results by county

Analysis

As he had managed in other primarily white

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

states including neighboring

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

, Bernie Sanders won a convincing ten-point victory in Oklahoma. This marked a clear difference from

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when Hillary Clinton had won the state by 21 points against

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 ...

, winning 76 of the state's 77 counties. According to exit polls, Sanders won

men A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the fa ...

60-33, younger voters 76-23,

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voters 56-36, and Independent voters 69-21. Clinton, for her part, won

women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

48-46, older voters 50-41, non-white voters 56-40, and Democrats 52-43. A majority of voters in the primary said they thought Clinton was not honest or trustworthy, 51-47. Sanders swept 75 of Oklahoma's 77 counties. He performed strongly in the major cities of Norman, Stillwater, Enid, and Moore. He narrowly edged out Clinton in Tulsa County by a margin of 2.28%. Clinton narrowly won in Oklahoma County (the only county to vote for Obama in the 2008 primary), home to

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

, and Osage County, home of the Osage Native American tribe. Sanders won most of the

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

, majority white and deeply

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

counties of the state, including those in the Oklahoma Panhandle, Little Dixie, and

Southwestern Oklahoma Southwest Oklahoma is a geographical name for the southwest portion of the state of Oklahoma, typically considered to be south of the Canadian River, extending eastward from the Texas border to a line roughly from Weatherford, Oklahoma, Weatherfo ...

which are among the most radically

areas of the nation. The Little Dixie region in particular was the base of President

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's support in the

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and 1996 elections, as this area consists of socially conservative but economically liberal Democrats, many of whom were drawn to Sanders's opposition to trade deals like NAFTA.

References

{{2016 Democratic primaries

Democratic primary

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