Bernie Sanders Cruises To Super Tuesday Win In Home State
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BURLINGTON, Vt. (CBSMiami/AP) — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders beat out former U.S. first lady and secretary of state Hillary Clinton in his home state of Vermont on Super Tuesday.
Sanders, speaking to thousands of cheering supporters at a campaign rally Tuesday evening in Essex Junction, noted that Tuesday also was Town Meeting Day, when people go out and argue with their neighbors about budgets and other issues.
"Then they vote, one person, one vote. In Vermont, billionaires do not buy town meetings, and in America we are going to end a corrupt campaign finance system," Sanders said, referring to one of his favorite campaign topics.
Sanders voted early Tuesday at a recreation center in his hometown, Burlington, before cruising to victory.
"I am confident that if there is a large voter turnout today across this country, we will do well," Sanders said after casting his vote alongside his wife, Jane Sanders. "If not we're going to be struggling."
Unofficial returns showed Sanders beat Clinton by about 89 percent of the vote to 11 percent.
On the Republican side, New York businessman Donald Trump led Ohio Gov. John Kasich by 37 percent to 26 percent. Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio had 19 percent, Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz had 10 percent and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson had 5 percent.
Democrats voted in 11 states and American Samoa on Tuesday, with 865 delegates up for grabs.
Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos, a Democrat, described turnout across the state as moderate to heavy.
Montpelier salesman Sead Drljacic, 52, a naturalized citizen originally from Bosnia-Herzegovina, said he supported Sanders, too.
"I was in the war. I was in a concentration camp because I was different religion, different nation. Donald Trump is one who reminds me of people who started everything in Bosnia in the '90s," said Drljacic, who noted that he is Muslim.
Trump has proposed temporarily banning all non-citizen Muslims from entering the United States and said it's risky to take in Syrian refugees because terrorists could be among them.
Cleophace Mukeba, 49, a Congolese refugee who has been living in Burlington for 10 years, said he supported Sanders as well.
"I am voting for Bernie Sanders because the issue that is rising, about the economy, inequality, they are real issues. And for us, it's really important because we are refugees who have settled here 10 years ago," said Mukeba, who just finished a master's degree program at the Vermont Law School and is unemployed. "We do have huge debt. Unemployment is too high for us. I think it's important to vote for Bernie Sanders because he is going to change things."
Clinton is already looking ahead to the Florida primary on March 15th by holding a rally in Miami Tuesday evening.
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