Sanders wins West Virginia Democratic primary; Trump takes GOP contests in Nebraska, W.Va.

[van id="politics/2016/05/11/bernie-sanders-nation-of-diversity-sot.cnn"]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders has added another state to his tally against Hillary Clinton with a win Tuesday night in West Virginia, but it's a victory that will do little to slow his rival's steady march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.


Clinton entered the night fewer than 200 delegates shy of the 2,383 she needs to secure the nomination. To win it, she needs just 17 percent of the delegates at stake in the remaining contests.

That means she could lose all the states left to vote by a landslide and still emerge as the nominee, so long as all of her supporters among the party insiders known as superdelegates continue to back her.

Clinton has already largely shifted her focus to the general election and the presumptive GOP nominee, Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump won the Republicans primaries in West Virginia and Nebraska Tuesday night. Former rival Ted Cruz had implied earlier Tuesday that if he were to win in Nebraska, he might resurrect his suspended campaign for the GOP nomination.

But Trump won and picked up all 36 delegates available in Nebraska's Republican presidential primary, giving him 89 percent of the delegates needed to win the GOP's nomination for president.

Trump is the only candidate left in the race and is the party's presumptive nominee, although other candidates were still listed on the ballot in Tuesday's primary elections in Nebraska and West Virginia.

Among Trump's backers in Nebraska was Don Fricke, a 76-year-old dentist from Lincoln. He says he voted for Trump because the billionaire businessman is a political outsider.

Fricke says he wants a candidate who will work to lower taxes and defend the country by strengthening the military, and he sees those qualities in Trump.

He adds that he thinks Trump has "a very good chance" against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election. Fricke says of Clinton, "Hillary's got too much baggage."

The billionaire businessman won at least three delegates in West Virginia. The other 31 delegates in West Virginia are elected directly by voters. Their names appear on the ballot, along with the presidential candidate they support.

Trump became the party's presumptive nominee after his victory last week in Indiana, which led his last remaining rivals to drop out of the race.


Cruz said again Tuesday that he isn't ready to endorse Trump.

In an interview with Glenn Beck, Cruz says he wants to support a president "we can trust ... with power who demonstrates a temperament not to abuse that power."

With Nebraskans voting the week after he exited the campaign, Cruz says he isn't holding his breath about winning the primary, with his name still on the ballot. But if he did and a path emerged to the nomination, Cruz says he'd "respond accordingly."

Now, he doesn't need to worry about that.

A significant portion of voters in West Virginia choosing between Clinton and Sanders say they don't identify as Democrats.

About 4 in 10 voters in the state's Democratic primary say they consider themselves to be an independent or Republican. That's according to early findings from exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research.

Among those voting in West Virginia's Democratic primary, about a third say they would supportTrump over either Clinton or Sanders in November's general election. An additional 2 in 10 say they wouldn't vote for Trump, Clinton or Sanders this fall.