LOUISVILLE: Hillary Clinton sought to halt the momentum of presidential rival Bernie Sanders Tuesday in primaries in Kentucky and Oregon, as she marches toward the Democratic nomination despite a string of recent losses.
A pair of victories would halt her slide and help reverse the narrative that her campaign was showing significant weakness ahead of an almost certain general election showdown between Clinton and Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee.
Though Clinton holds a slim poll lead, Sanders was gunning for victory in Kentucky, building on his win last week in neighboring West Virginia as he battles to keep his long-shot nomination bid alive.
West Virginia and Kentucky are linked to coal, as is much of Appalachia — the largely white, long-struggling eastern US region where many feel they have been left behind in the lukewarm recovery from the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Voters in Oregon in the Pacific northwest also went to the polls Tuesday in Democratic and Republican primaries, where limited polling has indicated Clinton is ahead.In Kentucky, only Democrats were voting for presidential candidates; Republicans have already held a caucus here.
“We need your help today to win in Oregon and Kentucky,” Sanders implored his 2.2 million Twitter followers, urging them to man phone banks and call voters.
Clinton sees Kentucky as an opportunity to appeal to working-class white men — a demographic where the former secretary of state has lagged behind both the celebrity billionaire Trump and Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist.
