The Daily Caller Election Desk can now project that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has won the Democratic primary in his home state, easily besting Hillary Clinton.
Polling leading up to Super Tuesday showed Sanders with a dominant lead in the state, and his decisive victory leaves him with a majority share of Vermont’s 16 delegates. With 35 percent of the vote reported, Sen. Sanders has 87 percent of the vote, with Clinton gaining a little over 12 percent.
The senator admitted early Tuesday that he voted for himself: “After a lot of deliberation, I know that Bernie Sanders here in Vermont got at least one vote.”
The most recent poll before the election had Sanders leading with 83 percent support, over Clinton’s 9 percent.
The victory raises fresh questions about Hillary’s ability to win over white voters — Vermont is nearly 97 percent white.
Reached Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for the Sanders campaign sounded cautiously optimistic: “You guys are projecting a victory before polls close? Yeah, I don’t have a comment on that.”
This report has been updated.