Hillary Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon all but conceded Wisconsin to Bernie Sanders, claiming, “I actually don’t think it would be a surprise to see Sen. Sanders fare well in Wisconsin.”
In an interview on “MSNBC Live” on Wednesday, host Jose Diaz-Balart, noting that many of Clinton’s upcoming events are in New York and not Wisconsin asked Fallon if the campaign had written off the Badger staate ” Fallon said, “Well, Hillary Clinton just spent the last two days in Wisconsin, so we have absolutely not written it off.”
“But it is absolutely the case that Sen. Sanders enters Wisconsin in a very strong position for a few reasons,” Fallon insisted. “Number one, Wisconsin is an open primary. Sen. Sanders traditionally does well in open primaries. Number two, it’s a very progressive leaning state, as Kasie [Hunt, an MSNBC reporter] just mentioned. And number three, if you look geographically, it’s situated right between Minnesota and Michigan, two states where he won.”
“So unlike Michigan, I actually don’t think it would be a surprise to see Sen. Sanders fare well in Wisconsin,” Fallon predicted. “But the reality is from a delegate math standpoint, I think the effect of a victory there, whoever wins, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, I think that the effect on the delegate math will be negligible,” Fallon claimed in an attempt to downplay a future loss and Sanders’ victory.
Fallon continued, “I think what will be far more decisive from a delegate standpoint will be some of the states that are voting in April, particularly the New York primary on April 19, which is one of the big remaining contests in terms of delegates … and I think that the standard for Sen. Sanders in a state like New York will be to not just win but to win big. He’ll need 58 percent of the pledged delegates the rest of the way to truly contest this nomination.”