Bernie Sanders wins Wyoming’s Democratic caucuses

Hillary Clinton lost Wyoming’s Democratic caucuses on Saturday, but she enjoyed some cheesecake in Brooklyn.

He has the support of several prominent activists and celebrities in the black community, but it has not translated into votes for Bernie Sanders.

Yet the Vermont senator hopes that will change with New York’s April 19 primary. To that effect, he’s enlisted the help of movie director Spike Lee.

In a new 30-second television spot produced by Lee, Harry Belfante and Erica Garner, whose father died in 2014 after being put in an apparent chokehold by New York police, insist that Sanders has the support of minorities.

“People of color have a deeply vested interest in what Bernie Sanders brings to us in this election,” Belafonte says.

But to date, that has not been the case with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who throughout the South and West has raked in support from black and Latinos. Indeed, based on several national surveys in recent months, many blacks know very little about Sanders.

In New York, where blacks and Latinos will make up a sizable portion of the electorate in the primary, Clinton has a double-digit lead over Sanders.

Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in Wyoming’s Democratic presidential caucuses on Saturday, another victory in his uphill battle for the party’s nomination.

Sanders’ win, his seventh in the last eight Democratic contests, affords him bragging rights and bolsters his argument that his campaign is gaining momentum. But with only 14 delegates up for grabs -- which he split with Clinton, seven apiece -- the Vermont senator still trails her by about 200 delegates.

The Wyoming victory underscores continued support for Sanders among the white liberals who have helped propel him to victory in states such as Wisconsin and Washington in recent weeks. He has struggled to appeal to minority voters – a large part of the Democratic primary electorate – who have overwhelmingly backed Clinton.

The contest in Wyoming is the final Democratic vote ahead of New York’s April 19 primary, where the candidates will be vying for 291 delegates.

An average of several polls in New York shows Clinton with a double-digit lead.

Speaking to supporters in the Bronx on Saturday, Sanders seemed undeterred.

“We are within striking distance,” he said.

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Sen. Ted Cruz, in a visit to Colorado on Saturday where his sophisticated ground game has yielded a coveted haul of delegates, boasted of his recent win streak over GOP front-runner Donald Trump.

“You all have been a part of something incredible that has happened over the last thee weeks,” Trump told attendees at the Colorado Republican state convention in Colorado Springs.

He pointed to his wins in the Utah caucuses, the Wisconsin primary and the North Dakota state convention. He also secured 21 delegates at congressional district-level conventions held in the last week in Colorado.

Colorado Republicans will select their remaining 13 delegates today. The state has an unusual selection process; there were no caucuses or primary for voters to express a preference for a presidential candidate. Rather, Republicans pick delegates after a series of party gatherings.

Cruz’s campaign has proven to be particularly adept at maneuvering individual states’ delegate-selection processes, ensuring that his loyalists will earn crucial slots at the GOP national convention in July.

His campaign projected a list of 13 approved delegates behind Cruz as he spoke at the convention on Saturday.

The Texas senator largely stuck to his stump speech, blasting Washington, D.C., as full of “blood-sucking parasites” and emphasizing his anti-establishment bona fides, even as the party elite has begun to coalesce around him as an alternative to Trump.

Trump was the only rival Cruz mentioned. The Texan jabbed at Trump’s former support for Democratic candidates.

“Donald Trump has been supporting liberal democratic politicians for 40 years,” Cruz said. “I have no experience with that.”

Cruz got a warm reception from attendees. The stage was surrounded by many Cruz volunteers in blindingly bright orange T-shirts, emblazoned with the Cruz-approved delegate slate.

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Since his defeat in the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, Donald Trump has for the most part kept a low profile.

He held a rally on Long Island, N.Y., canceled an event in California, and on Saturday toured the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan.

Trump is vying to win his home state’s April 19 primary where 95 delegates are up for grabs.

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President Obama said Friday night that the heated rhetoric from Donald Trump and Ted Cruz on immigration and Muslims is nothing new to the Republican Party.

“They’re saying the same thing members of the Freedom Caucus in the House have been saying for years,” Obama, alluding to a caucus comprised of the most conservative members of Congress, told donors at a San Francisco fundraiser.

Obama, who has been in California for the past two days raising money for Democrats, added that there is a “substantial number of Republicans who are embarrassed” by the way Trump and Cruz talk about Muslims.

“There is a little bit of recoil,” said Obama. “Is that what we’re standing for? Blocking Muslims from coming into our country, building walls, surveilling neighborhoods?”

In December, following terrorist attacks by Islamic radicals in Paris and San Bernardino, Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. And more recently, following the bombings in Belgium, Cruz said that more police patrols of Muslim neighborhoods in U.S. cities was needed to ensure safety. Both have been assailed across party lines for such proposals.

Ted Cruz is poised to add delegates to his tally when Colorado Republicans convene for the state convention. So how many delegates does Cruz have compared to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump?

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