Both Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands hold contests this weekend in the Democratic primary, and strong performances in the U.S. territories by Hillary Clinton will get her within inches of the nomination.
Clinton is currently 70 delegates short of the nomination. Per the AP delegate tracker, this includes pledged delegates and superdelegates. The Virgin Islands’ Democratic Caucus will be held on Saturday with seven pledged delegates and an additional five superdelegates up for grabs. Two of the territory’s superdelegates have already stated they plan to support the former secretary of state.
Clinton has performed strongly with the black electorate so far this election, and the Virgin Islands are over 75 percent black. Clinton could head into Sunday with nine or ten more delegates to her name. Sunday, just like Saturday, is demographically favorable to Hillary. Puerto Rico, which holds its primary Sunday, has 60 pledged delegates and seven super-delegates available, with five of these superdelegates already backing Clinton.
She has dominated the heavily Hispanic states so far this election, winning over 70 percent of the vote in Texas and Florida. If Clinton were to have a repeat performance with Latino voters and pick up the remaining superdelegates, she would go into Monday with a little more than 50 delegates. This combined with the Virgin Islands would make her within single-digits of the delegates required to clinch the nomination. This is an amount she’d be sure to get in California and New Jersey.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has vowed to continue the fight for the nomination until the July convention with the hopes of flipping superdelegates over to his side. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz made similar statements during the Republican primary.