News

How Many Delegates For Hillary In NJ?

by Chris Tognotti

Don't look now, all you voracious political junkies, but the 2016 presidential primary process is nearly at an end. On Tuesday, the six states held their contests, and although there's still one still outstanding (the Washington, D.C. primary on June 14th), that means all 50 states have had their chance to weigh in. The Garden State was among the six that held contests on Tuesday night, with 142 delegates on the line for the Democrats ― so, how many delegates did Hillary Clinton win in New Jersey?

To be clear, the exact number of total delegates each candidate has is basically academic at this point, thanks to the staggering pledged delegate lead Clinton carried into the day ― she led by 291 at the start of the day, and the polls heading in suggested that she'd push that lead even higher, mathematically eliminating Vermont senator Bernie Sanders from victory through anything but a pure superdelegate strategy in the process.

But the Sanders campaign hasn't conceded anything yet ― they've continued to suggest that they might indeed employ such a pure superdelegate strategy ― and the wins and losses do still have relevance as far as public perception of momentum goes. So, how many delegates did Clinton come away with from the New Jersey primary?

GABRIELLE LURIE/AFP/Getty Images

According to The New York Times' delegate tracking, at the time of this writing, Clinton has 73 of the state's 142 pledged delegates, against Sanders' 47, with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

Of course, considering the pledged delegate race is all but concluded, and the remaining outcomes are more an exercise in selling positive momentum than anything else, it's worth considering how the outcome stacked up against what the polls predicted. A big swing, even if it wasn't decisive (like, say, losing by two instead of 20) could still be leveraged by Sanders to argue he's on the upswing, to make some last-ditch pitch to convince the superdelegates to back him instead. According to RealClearPolitics, Clinton boasted a polling average advantage of 20.5 points heading into Tuesday, and with 99 percent of precincts reporting so far, she's now winning by nearly 26 points, outperforming her polls.

Of course, New Jersey is just one of the states voting on Tuesday, alongside North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Montana, and California. It boasts the second-biggest prize of the six, with California clocking in at a staggering 546 total pledged delegates.