Clinton Leads in Primary Votes
Big West Virginia Win Puts Her Nearly 150,000 Votes Ahead of Obama
May 14, 2008
United States Senator Hillary Clinton held the mid-May lead in the see-saw battle for the most votes in the Democratic presidential primaries, thanks to April victories in the Pennsylvania and Texas primaries and May wins in the Indiana and West Virginia primaries.
The unofficial count of all precincts in the West Virginia primary on May 13 gave Clinton 239,062 votes and U.S. Senator Barick Obama 91,652. U.S. Senator John McCain collected 89,683 votes in the West Virginia Republican primary.
Based on CNN’s unofficial results in all Democratic primaries through May 13, Clinton has 16,460,934 votes and Obama 16,310,987. Those totals counted votes in the controversial Florida and Michigan primaries, where neither candidate campaigned. They do not include votes in a dozen states which conduct restricted caucuses instead of primaries.
McCain Has Nearly 9 Million Votes in the Republican Primaries
U.S. Senator John McCain received 8,905,831 votes in the Republican primaries through May 13. He appeared to have wrapped up the Republican nomination in March and has faced little opposition in the primaries since then.
Here’s where the candidates registered their biggest votes:
- McCain: California 1,093,560; Texas 709,477; Florida 693,508; Ohio 636,256; Pennsylvania 586,904.
- Obama: California 1,890,026; Texas 1,358,785; Illinois 1,301,954; Pennsylvania 1,045,148; Ohio 979,025;
- Clinton: California 2,306,361; Texas 1,459,814; Pennsylvania 1,260,060; Ohio 1,207,806; New York 1,003,623.
Obama's Biggest Win Was In Illinois; Clinton's in California
Clinton scored her biggest victory in California, beating Obama by 416,335 votes.
Obama's most decisive victory was in his adopted state of Illinois, beating Clinton by 639,109. She is a native of Illinois, but has since moved to Arkansas and later to New York.
Just as the winning popular vote in the November 4 election does not necessarily determine who will be president, the total votes in the primaries do not determine the delegate counts at the nominating conventions. But they can help the candidate in fund raising, provide the candidates with momentum in future primaries and possible help in winning superdelegates.
The impact of the popular vote is lessened by the manner in which states allocate their delegates. Some direct all their delegates to the candidate with the highest popular vote, regardless of the margin. That means a candidate can lose the popular election by only a few votes and come away from that state with no delegates at all. Other states distribute the delegates in proportion to the popular vote.
Four Democratic and Five Republican State Primaries Remain
Remaining May and June primaries leading to the national conventions:
- May 20—Kentucky and Oregon primaries
- May 27—Idaho Republican primary
- June 3—South Dakota primaries, Montana Democratic primary, New Mexico Republican primary
Reference: CNN election website
Final Total Primary Popular Votes
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