NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT
Wednesday, May 18, 2016, 1 a.m. — Hillary Clinton’s statewide campaigning and her focus on urging Kentucky Democrats to go to the polls helped give her the statewide win over Sen. Bernie Sanders in their race for the Democratic nomination for president.
In Nelson County, Clinton’s margin of victory was only 50 votes, 2,395 to Sanders’ 2,345.
Clinton carried just 10 of Nelson County’s 24 voting precincts, but she won in the most populous precincts in and around the Bardstown area. Sanders won 14 precincts, all of them in rural areas of the county. Clinton dominated several precincts, but the winning margin in five of the county’s precincts was five votes or less.
Statewide, a similar dynamic was also at work, with Clinton counties near the state’s major population centers of Lexington, Louisville and Cincinnati, while Sanders did well in eastern and western parts of the state.
In addition to Nelson, Clinton also won in Washington, Marion and Hardin counties. Sanders won in Bullitt, Spencer and LaRue counties.
U.S. SENATE. Lexington Mayor Jim Gray handily won his party’s nomination Tuesday night and the right to square-off against incumbent Republican Sen. Rand Paul.
Paul won nearly 85 percent of the vote statewide over two virtually unknown primary candidates.
Gray carried all 24 Nelson County precincts. The next-highest vote-getter was Ron Leach, with 16.82 percent of the votes cast in the county.
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