How Clinton won
Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:46 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC's AnaMaria Arumi
Hillary Clinton is the winner of the Democratic primary in West Virginia today. She pulled together pretty much the same coalition that she rode to victory in last week in Indiana and before that in Pennsylvania and Ohio -- benefiting greatly from the demographic profile of the state.
The exit polls asked Democratic primary voters in West Virginia what issue was most important to their vote today. As was the case WV Pennsylvania and Ohio, the Democratic primary electorate in West Virginia is predominately white.
The overwhelming majority of West Virginia Democratic primary voters today were white and 4% were African American.
Clinton won the white vote by 68% to 28%
While Barack Obama did narrow his margins in West Virginia among more affluent and better-educated white voters, this state was all about working-class whites again delivering their votes for Hillary Clinton.
Working-class whites earning less than $50,000 backed Clinton 72% to 24% for Obama. White women have been an important Clinton constituency, and she did win this group in West Virginia today.
She won white women by 74% to 24%, and most white men by, 63% to 33%.
This heavily white, older, and less well-educated electorate also felt a stronger personal connection with Hillary Clinton than they did with Barack Obama. We asked voters in the Mountain State if they believed each candidate shared their values.
Seven-in-10 think Clinton shares their core values, while less than half feel the same about Obama. West Virginia Democratic primary voters clearly prefer Hillary Clinton, but with Obama closing in on the nomination, do they find him an acceptable alternative? We asked the voters how they would feel if Obama is the Democratic Party’s nominee this year -- 44% say they would be satisfied with him, 54% would be dissatisfied.
