Oregon and Kentucky contests put pressure on Clinton
By Ginger Gibson and Emily Stephenson
WASHINGTON, 2016 - Hillary Clinton is under pressure to do well in Democratic nominating contests in Kentucky and Oregon on Tuesday so she can turn her attention to the general election and the mounting attacks on her by Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The continued presence in the race of Bernie Sanders – who remains a long-shot to upset Clinton and win the Democratic nomination – is prompting concerns among Clinton allies that he will damage her ability to take on Trump and hurt the Democrat in the fall.
But Sanders supporters shrug off that worry, arguing that Trump is such a flawed candidate that Clinton will easily dispatch with him if she faces him in the Nov. 8 election.
“Either way we’re going to get a Democratic president,” Alisha Liedtke, 28, a Sanders supporter from Ellensburg, Washington.
In interviews with 14 voters who back the U.S. senator from Vermont, supporters said they did not believe Trump, who is all but certain to be the Republican nominee, could win the Nov. 8 general election.
They said Sanders should keep fighting until the Democratic National Convention in July, to push Clinton to the left and challenge her ties to Wall Street and support for free-trade deals.
TOUGH SLOG FOR CLINTON
Allies of Clinton have held back from overt calls for Sanders to exit the race. Moves by her campaign to try to push him out could risk angering Democratic voters and backfire.
So Clinton must continue her primary fight in Kentucky and Oregon, where analysts predict she will have a hard time winning. The Democratic race is unlikely to wrap up before California, New Jersey and several other states vote on June 7.
Oregon, with a heavily white, liberal population, politically resembles its northern neighbor Washington, which voted for Sanders. Oregon voters cast their ballots by mail, meaning voting there actually began in the last week of April.
After Sanders won both West Virginia and Indiana this month, analysts said he has a good chance of taking Kentucky. Louisville and the western part of the state are more moderate politically, and Clinton spent Sunday and Monday campaigning there.
SLIDESHOW – The campaign for Oregon and Kentucky >>>
Both Oregon and Kentucky are closed primaries in which only registered Democrats can vote, a stricture Sanders has criticized as discouraging independent voters from joining the party.
Sanders has insisted that he will stay in the presidential election until the Democratic convention on July 25-28 and planned two rallies in California on Wednesday.
Democratic strategist Jim Manley said Sanders should be careful he does not wind up helping Trump. “I have no problem with Senator Sanders staying in until the end,” said Manley, who supports Clinton. “If that’s what he chooses to do, I just hope he plays it smart and doesn’t give the Trump campaign any more ammunition than it already has to take on Hillary Clinton.”
Some Democrats are concerned Trump could repeat any criticisms Sanders makes against Clinton. Clinton allies also worry that Sanders could so damage the former U.S. secretary of state in the eyes of his supporters that they will choose not to vote in November if he is not on the ballot.
Sanders supporters played down this concern.
“I think it’s important for him to continue to demonstrate that there is an awful lot of support for those policies,” said Jeremy Schofield, 45, of Albuquerque, New Mexico. “I’m not terribly concerned about Trump being elected.”
He said he would flip to Clinton if she is the nominee. He thinks the long primary process is helping, not hurting, the Democratic Party.
Chanelle Hayes, 34, of Fort Mills, South Carolina, said she wants Sanders to remain in the race even if it helps Trump, whom she called a racist she could never support. Hayes said she backs Sanders because she thinks he is more honest than Clinton.
(Additional reporting by Luciana Lopez in New York and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Caren Bohan and Frances Kerry)
