A rainy evening didn't dissuade them. Neither did lines that stretched multiple city blocks. Tens of thousands of Utahns were willing to wait hours Tuesday evening to cast their ballot in the state's Democratic caucus, a rare moment when this conservative state's more liberal residents felt empowered.
"This is the first time it matters that I come out to vote in Utah," said Debra Walker, a business analyst who lives on Salt Lake City's east side. "It feels good. It is a voice."
And like Walker, a big majority of voters — close to 80 percent with half the votes counted — backed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who will take the bulk of Utah's 33 pledged delegates. The Utah Democratic Party will release the official delegate split Wednesday morning.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, only received about 20 percent, getting beat in just about every area of the state by a candidate that many voters considered more authentic.
Walker said she hadn't heard of Sanders before the campaign, but appreciated his support for progressive programs far more common in Europe than in the United States.
Some 1,200 Bonneville County residents showed up at Skyline High School Tuesday night to caucus for Democratic Party candidates. Thousands more attended events across Idaho.
The Associated Press reports the Idaho Democratic Party delayed the start time of the Ada County caucus by close to two hours due to long lines that stretched down several blocks in downtown Boise. With an estimated 20,000 people in attendance, one Boise councilwoman called the Ada County caucus the largest in the history of the United States.
In eastern Idaho, turnout was higher than many Democratic officials expected.
“It’s a very exciting time because there’s a … great turn out and we’re expecting to see quite a few people here,” Bonneville County Executive Committee member Miranda Marquit told EastIdahoNews.com. “With a caucus it’s a little bit different, because it’s like democracy on the ground floor. We get together and we talk about our ideas, and we talk about what we want to do.”
..
At the end of the night, Bonneville County voted 822 to 217 in favor of Sanders over Clinton, which equates to a 79 percent victory for Sanders.
In Bannock County, the Idaho State Journal reports Sanders claimed 1,219 ballots with Clinton at 306 — indicating an 80 to 20 percent split.
The Blackfoot Morning News reports the final vote in Bingham County was 179 ballots for Sanders and 55 for Clinton.
Hillary Clinton won the pivotal presidential contest in Arizona Tuesday, prevailing over rival Bernie Sanders in the latest in a string of primary victories for the Democratic front-runner.
The Associated Press declared Clinton the winner less than 30 minutes after early balloting results were released.
Sanders, meanwhile, prevailed in caucuses in Utah and Idaho, according to the Associated Press and other news organizations. The Vermont senator's wins there were by large margins, positioning him to win sizable delegate majorities in both states.
Sanders invested significant money and time in Arizona, however, appearing in Phoenix, Flagstaff and Tucson at five thunderous rallies largely dominated by the young voters who have flocked to hear his “political revolution” message.
Addressing supporters in San Diego, Sanders cited "record-breaking turnouts" in states that held contests Tuesday and said his campaign appealed to voters because “we are telling the truth.”
The self-described democratic socialist's campaign pitch connected with Joshua Hart, 20. He waited in a long line that snaked around the Church of the Beatitudes in north-central Phoenix. He voted for Sanders, saying he speaks to issues he most cares about: distribution of wealth and income inequalities in the workplace.
“You have clear separation between the higher class and lower class,” Hart said. “I’d like to see them closer together.”
Bernie Sanders brought his campaign for the White House to San Diego Tuesday, electrifying more than 10,000 supporters who had stood for hours in a line a mile long to hear him speak.
The late-night rally at the bayfront San Diego Convention Center had a rock-concert atmosphere typical of many of Sanders’ events and the crowd exploded when the Vermont senator took the stage more than three hours after the doors opened.
Sanders touched on familiar campaign themes of getting big money out of politics, combating climate change, ensuring universal health care and making public colleges and universities tuition-free.
He gave shout-out appeals to numerous groups, saying his campaign was listening to young people, disabled veterans, senior citizens, Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans, women, gays, unauthorized immigrants and the economically disadvantaged.
Sanders pledged to make the “rigged economy” fair and redirect much of the spending on wars to address problems at home.
“Together we are going to change the national priorities of this country,” he shouted, his voice going hoarse. “Together we are going to invest in our communities. Together we are gong to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and create millions of jobs.”
He also lashed out in familiar fashion at various foes, including the billionaire-class, Wall Street, pharmaceutical companies, the Walmart-owning Walton family, vote-suppressing Republican governors, Donald Trump and, on campaign finance, Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
There were many moments of levity during Bernie Sanders’s appearance here Tuesday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” -- more on the presentation of a fanny pack later -- but the Democratic presidential hopeful also weighed in on some serious issues on a day when terrorism dominated the news.
Asked by host Jimmy Kimmel why Americans seem to gravitate toward candidates who talk the toughest after episodes like that in Brussels, the senator from Vermont said he understood to some degree.
“I think people get afraid, and for good reasons,” Sanders said during a late afternoon taping the late-night show on ABC. “ISIS is a disgusting, barbaric organization. … But what we have to understand is we’re not going to undermine the constitution of the United States of America.”
..
Earlier in the show, Kimmel confessed that he didn’t think there would be a compelling reason to have Sanders on the show at this point. He was last a guest in October.
“I thought this is a very smart guy, he has some very interesting ideas, he obviously loves his country, but there’s no way we’ll still be seeing him in March, and yet here you are,” Kimmel said.
Are you surprised? Kimmel asked.
“Yes and no,” Sanders said. “I thought the message that we had that there’s something wrong when the middle class in this country is disappearing, people are working longer hours for lower wages, we have so much poverty, almost all the new income and wealth is going to the top 1 percent, I did know that that was a message that would resonate.”
As party voters were lining up in three other states, Sen. Bernie Sanders was strolling down Hollywood Boulevard on Tuesday, shaking hands and taking selfies with fans.
The Democratic presidential candidate had arrived early for a taping at the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show in Hollywood and decided to take a walk down one of the city's more colorful and crowded streets.
Accompanied by an entourage of Secret Service agents, he shook dozens of hands and stopped for numerous selfies. Most people greeted him with enthusiasm, wishing him luck in the election and shouting "Bernie Sanders 2016" or "We love you!"
As leading presidential candidates spoke at the Washington gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), promising support and a crackdown on boycotts of Israel, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders made a dissenting speech in Salt Lake City, where he spoke up for suffering Palestinians. It received little broadcast media attention.
In a speech from Salt Lake City, which had been offered as a telecast to AIPAC — an offer that was denied — the Vermont senator reiterated his support for Israel’s security. He also insisted that “peace also means security for every Palestinian. It means achieving self-determination, civil rights, and economic well-being for the Palestinian people.”
Sanders called it “absurd” for Israel to pursue more settlements in response to violence. “Peace will also mean ending the economic blockade of Gaza,” he said. “And it will mean a sustainable and equitable distribution of precious water resources so that Israel and Palestine can both thrive as neighbors.”
While objecting to rocket attacks by Hamas, he also reiterated that he “condemned the [Israeli] bombing of hospitals, schools, and refugee camps.” He insisted that while Israel is a friend to the United States, “as friends, we are obligated to speak the truth as we see it. This is what real friendship demands, especially in difficult times.”
Sanders’s address stood out in contrast to the remarks from the other four major party candidates left in the race.
Yet a query using the TV Eyes broadcast media search engine found that the text of the speech was mentioned only in a handful of outlets. Unlike the addresses by Clinton and Trump, no major broadcast outlet carried it live. CNN International read a section of Sanders’s prepared remarks in a segment with writer Peter Beinart, a frequent critic of Israeli settlements; Al Jazeera America read a portion of Sanders’s remarks in commentary on the speeches at AIPAC. BBC World played a portion of Sanders’ speech dealing with the need to be friends to both Israel and the Palestinians. Although MSNBC did not cover the speech or its content, Hardball with Chris Matthews featured former U.S. ambassador Marc Ginsberg to explain Sanders’s absence at AIPAC by saying, “Mr. Sanders … has never really extolled his jewishness, much less any support for Israel.”
A morning to study in a coffee shop turned into a moment Hannah Salesman will never forget, after Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders sat down next to her Tuesday morning.
Salesman, a junior at Northern Arizona University, said she went to Macy’s European Coffee House for a coffee and to study after her session of student teaching, when the presidential candidate, who had been in town for a rally last night, sat down next to her.
“I was doing homework with my headphones in, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Bernie Sanders was sitting behind me,” Salesman said, still shaking with adrenaline after her encounter.
Salesman said Sanders walked into the coffee shop and ordered a coffee just like anyone else, then chose a seat near the side, visible from the window.
“I said ‘How am I supposed to study now, Bernie?’” she said. “And he said, ‘Don’t use me as an excuse.’”
Sanders asked her what she was studying, and she said special education.
She said the U.S. senator from Vermont then asked her to sit down with him, and the aspiring teacher chatted with him about education funding, Common Core and other issues.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will return to Washington state this week — scheduling rallies Thursday in Yakima and Friday at Safeco Field in Seattle.
Sanders, who drew big crowds to recent rallies in Seattle, Vancouver and Spokane, will return to his largest Washington venue yet in Friday’s Safeco rally.
The ballpark will open at 4 p.m. for the event, with speeches to start later in the evening, the Sanders campaign announced in a news release Tuesday night.
While attendance at the event is free and open to the public, the campaign urged online RSVPs.
anders first will look to Central Washington, with Thursday’s rally scheduled at the Yakima Valley SunDome at State Fair Park.
Doors for the Yakima event will open at 4 p.m., and online RSVPs also are requested.