Joseph Gerth

Opinion Columnist | Louisville Courier Journal

Hillary Clinton narrowly defeated Bernie Sanders in Kentucky's Democratic primary on Tuesday, thwarting the Vermont senator's recent momentum and giving her a much-needed boost heading into the final six primary contests.

With 99.8 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton led by about 1,800 votes. The margin of victory was less than one-half vote per precinct statewide.

Clinton, a former senator and secretary of state, was trying to recapture both her momentum across the nation and the Clinton family magic in Kentucky that made Bill Clinton the last Democrat to win the state in a presidential race and gave her a huge victory over Barack Obama in 2008.

Sanders was trying to continue chipping away at Hillary Clinton’s 767-delegate lead in the Democratic presidential race.

The state Democratic Party declared her the winner late Tuesday night, and Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes told CNN that Clinton was the unofficial winner.

The party said it would allocate the state's 55 earned delegates on Wednesday, but it's unlikely that Clinton will get a big boost based on the razor-thin margin.

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Sanders dominated in Eastern and Western Kentucky, particularly around the coal fields, while Clinton won the state's urban areas and a swath of counties through the central part of the state. In all, Clinton won 38 of Kentucky's 120 counties, piling up a huge 18,932 vote advantage in Jefferson. Clinton has performed best in places with sizable African-American populations throughout the country.

Republican voters didn't get to vote for a presidential nominee on Tuesday because the party chose Donald Trump in a March 5 caucus.

In addition to the 55 delegates that were up for grabs on Tuesday, the state’s Democrats also have five superdelegates, two of whom have already pledged their support to Clinton. Two others have not said who they would vote for, and a fifth superdelegate has not been named.

The race between Clinton and Sanders was the first truly contested Democratic primary in Kentucky since the 1988 Super Tuesday primaries. In 2008, Obama barely visited the state since he had essentially locked up the nomination.

Over the last two weeks this time, Clinton and former President Bill Clinton made numerous stops across the state, drawing small- to medium-size crowds.

Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton was in Louisville, Bowling Green, Fort Mitchell, Hopkinsville, Lexington and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Sanders held larger events in Bowling Green and Paducah and a small event in Elizabethtown. His largest event, however, was two weeks ago when he drew some 7,000 people to Waterfront Park in Louisville, the same night he won the Indiana primary.

The Clinton-Sanders tilt was difficult to handicap because of the lack of independent polling in the race. The last poll was conducted in early March by Public Policy Polling and showed Clinton with an advantage of 5 percentage points.

That was before Clinton, during a town hall meeting in Columbus, Ohio, said that she was “going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” while trying to explain her plan to sink some $30 billion into Appalachia to rebuild the economy.

Her opponents seized on those words, which appeared to harm her in central Appalachia. Sanders beat her 51 percent to 36 percent in West Virginia. She sent her husband into the heart of Kentucky’s coal country last week to try to convince voters that she is the only candidate qualified to save communities dependent on coal as the industry declines.

Sanders didn't even need to visit the coal fields to win resounding victories throughout the region, but it wasn't enough to overcome Clinton's advantage in the states' larger cities.

Reporter Joseph Gerth can be reached at (502) 582-4702 or jgerth@courier-journal.com.