The Race

Over the weekend, there were Democratic Party caucuses in Alaska, Hawaii and here in Washington State. Senator Bernie Sanders won all of them convincingly. There have been a couple of primary narratives around this. One is demographic. All three states held caucuses instead of primaries and have a Democratic voter base that is both Whiter and more educated than the national average, and as the primaries have played out, states like that have tended to go for Senator Sanders. One is political. Democratic voters are signalling to Hillary Clinton that she hasn't sealed the deal yet, and that it is they, and not party bigwigs or large donors who will decide who the nominee is; and in making themselves heard, Democratic voters delivered a stinging rebuke to the Clinton campaign.

While there's nothing wrong with either of those narratives, what I've found interesting is that several stories have invoked them both at the same time. But that leaves you with Sanders supporters, by virtue of living in states where the demographics predict that large numbers of other Sanders supporters live, delivered a stinging rebuke to the Clinton campaign by voting in precisely the way that demographers predicted they would.

Nothing sells news like conflict.