As has been the case in a recent string of caucus wins, Sanders beat Clinton handily, 56.5 percent to 43 percent.
Sanders desperately needed a win that would net a sizable number of delegates in Wisconsin. Because he suffered a series of tough losses early on in the primary season, Sanders must now win virtually all remaining contests by hefty margins. Clinton’s delegate lead now stands at more than 200, though it will shrink slightly following Sanders’ most recent Wisconsin win.
Sanders benefited from the makeup of Badger State voters, a mostly white, liberal bloc of citizens living in an economically struggling state where unions hold power and factories have shuttered.
The Vermont senator highlighted his support for workers throughout his Wisconsin tour, and he criticized Clinton’s past support for international trade deals, which he says have outsourced jobs.
On Monday, Sanders spoke to a large group before a hall of United Automobile Workers in Janesville, a town where 2,800 people lost jobs in 2008 when the oldest General Motors plant in America shut down and production was shifted to Mexico.
Sanders said Clinton’s recent reversal on support for trade deals including the Trans Pacific Partnership were disingenuous, and that she did not represent the working men and women of America.
“I’m not a candidate who goes to the unions, goes to workers and then leaves and goes to a fundraiser with Wall Street,” Sanders said in Janesville. “You are my family. I have worked with unions for my entire life. That is what this campaign is about. That is what I’ve been about my whole life.”
Sanders worked overtime to win Wisconsin’s primary contest on Tuesday, employing an all-out blitz in the days before voting that was reminiscent of the campaign’s big pushes before New Hampshire and Iowa.
While Sanders spoke in front of more than 50,000 people in the weeks before the Iowa caucuses, roughly 38,000 people turned out for Sanders events in Wisconsin in the past week alone, according to the campaign.
Bernie toured the Badger state for most of the past week, adding rallies to his schedule nearly every day. On Monday, the campaign scheduled rallies in three big cities: Milwaukee, Green Bay and Janesville.
The campaign also employed a large number of celebrity surrogates throughout the state, including actors Shailene Woodley and Tim Robbins. In a now standard page out of Sanders’ playbook, a number of hip bands also held concerts in college towns to attract young voters and spread Bernie’s message.
“If there is a large voter turnout we will win on Tuesday,” Sanders said in Eau Claire on Sunday. “Let us have the largest voter turnout in Wisconsin primary history.”
The next contest on the calendar is Wyoming, a small liberal caucus state where Sanders will likely perform well. Bernie’s wife, Jane, visited Casper, Wyoming, on Monday to speak about her husband to about 100 people.
Sanders was in Laramie on Tuesday night, where he thanked Wisconsin for the win before turning to the crowd.
“I was told that there were about 5,000 people who participated in the last Wyoming caucus,” Sanders said. “It looks like all of them are here tonight, thank you!”
While Sanders may well win Wyoming, it won’t help him much with campaign math, as the state allocates a total of 18 delegates.
The next big fight on April 19 in New York, a delegate-heavy primary state where Sanders needs to employ his Brooklyn-born persistence. The state has 291 delegates, the most of any state on the calendar so far.
FiveThirtyEight gives Clinton, a former New York State senator, a 96 percent chance of victory in the Empire State, and the most recent poll showed the former secretary of state has a 10-point lead over the Vermont senator, 53 percent to 43 percent.
The Sanders campaign has money to spare, and Tuesday’s victory will likely bring more money in.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Sanders will be in another delegate-heavy state, Pennsylvania, for three events in Philadelphia. He will then likely return to his hometown turf to battle Clinton for New York’s delegate.
On Tuesday night, Sanders offered a bold prediction for New York, seemingly determined not to lose the state in which he was born.
“I know a little bit about New York because I spent the first 18 years of my life in Brooklyn, New York,” Sanders said, his every word colored by a Big Apple accent.
“Please keep this a secret,” Sanders then told the crowd. “Do not tell secretary Clinton, she’s getting a little nervous. And I don’t want her to gets more nervous. But I believe we’ve got an excellent chance to win New York.”
