Sanders wins Wyoming caucuses to keep momentum before New York primary

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders scored another win in the West on Satursday, defeating front-runner Hillary Clinton in the Wyoming caucuses.

With 96 percent of Wyoming vote counted, Sanders had 56 percent to Clinton’s 44 percent, according to the Associated Press.

The win, following a triumph in Wisconsin earlier in the week, will marginally narrow the deficit in pledged delegates between Sanders and Clinton. Wyoming awards 14 delegates proportionally, and has four superdelegates.

Clinton won the Arizona primary on March 22, but Sanders then beat Clinton in Idaho, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington state and Wisconsin.

The victory on Saturday means Sanders has now won 16 states, compared to Clinton’s 18. But it will do little to change the overall delegate count, which Clinton leads by a large margin.

Sparsely populated Wyoming fits the profile of several states won by Sanders so far: rural and mostly white. Democrats are a minority in the state, which Mitt Romney carried over Barack Obama by 40 percentage points in the 2012 general election. Obama won the 2008 Democratic caucus over Clinton, 61 to 38 percent.

Sanders still would need to overcome a large Clinton lead in pledged delegates and superdelegates — party officials and elected lawmakers — to secure the Democratic nomination at the July convention. A candidate needs 2,383 delegates to win.

The contenders will next face off in the New York primary April 19, in which 291 delegates are at stake.