Bernie Sanders Won Big In The Oregon Primary

After Hillary Clinton lost the Oregon primary to Bernie Sanders on May 17, you might be wondering how many delegates did Sanders win in Oregon? Well, based on Sanders' performance with voters in Oregon, he should be pretty proud of himself.

The delegate count is increasingly important for Clinton and Sanders as they continue to compete for the Democratic Party nomination. A total of 2,383 delegates are needed for either candidate to officially claim the nomination and Sanders' Oregon victory definitely didn't slow him from getting closer to that goal. To be fair, Sanders still needs 855 delegates to reach the required number of delegates to be the nominee; Clinton, on the other hand, needs a mere 92 delegates to reach the delegate total required.

Although Sanders narrowly lost to Clinton in the Kentucky primary, he came out on top in Oregon and racked up another W against his opponent. At only 74 percent of reporting, Sanders had beaten Clinton by nearly 10 percentage points in the Oregon primary. What's more, Sanders had earned at least 28 delegates to Clinton's 24, and there were still more votes to be counted and delegates to be allotted. At this point in the race, Sanders needs all the delegates he can get, so he should proud of himself for this Oregon win.

A win is a win, and Sanders decidedly won the Oregon primary. However, as The New York Times pointed out, the delegate math still doesn't quite work out in Sanders' favor. There are only nine primaries left this election season and Sanders needs to earn those 855 delegates accumulatively from these remaining contests. In order for this to work mathematically, Sanders would need to average 68 percent of the votes at each of the nine primaries. Of course, there are alternative ways for Sanders to pull ahead; California's Democratic primary will have a whopping 475 delegates up for grabs, so if Sanders could beat Clinton by a significant percent then he would receive a similarly significant portion of said delegates.

And while Clinton beat Sanders in Kentucky, they ended up with an even number of delegates (27) and a near-equal percent of the votes. Sure, Clinton considered this a "victory" for her campaign, but Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, told CNN that this narrow lead for Clinton showed something more about Democratic voters: "There are a lot of Democrats who are having second thoughts. I don't think the voters are ready for this race to be over.”

Even after the Kentucky and Oregon primaries, Sanders showed no sign of dropping out, especially before the major primary in California. After earning at least 28 delegates of the 61 available in Oregon, Sanders should definitely be proud of himself for his performance in the Beaver State.