by Nick Storm, @NickStorm_cn2 –
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both claimed victory after Kentucky’s presidential election after the campaigns essentially split Kentucky’s 55 pledged delegates.
The delegates are awarded by the Kentucky Democratic Party, and a spokesman for the party says the results will be split by congressional districts to determine exactly how many delegates will be awarded to Clinton and Sanders.
Clinton unofficially bested the Vermont senator last night, bringing in 212,550 votes across the commonwealth to Sander’s 210,626. It’s likely Clinton will gain one more delegate than Sanders, but as of yet that has not been determined.
Even though 24,101 Democrats cast ballots for “uncommitted” on Tuesday, there will be no delegates awarded. According to Daniel Lowry, spokesman for the Kentucky Democratic Party, candidates or in this case “uncommitted” would have had to reach 15 percent of the vote to be awarded a proportional share of the vote.
There are also five uncommitted superdelegates who will be casting their ballots at the Democratic National Convention. Currently two of those delegates are supporting Clinton, but they are not required to vote for the former U.S. secretary of state.
The five delegates include Kentucky Democratic Party Chair Sannie Overly and the vice chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party, who as of now has not been named.
There are also two elected Democratic National Committee members: Charlotte Lundergan, the mother of Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes; and Charlie Moore.
U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, the state’s lone Democratic elected official also serves as a superdelegate.
Only Yarmuth and Lundergan have announced their support of Clinton so far.
Before Tuesday’s results Clinton led Sanders by 767 pledged delegates.
The Democratic Party has not yet named the members of the delegation. They will hold their state convention June 4 in Louisville, where delegates will be selected for the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
