Franklin County area Democrats leaned way left to put their shoulders behind the Bernie Sanders bandwagon in Tuesday’s presidential primary.
At press time, Sanders had garnered more than twice Hillary Clinton’s total in the Franklin County, North Quabbin region, with 22 towns reporting overwhelmingly backing the Vermont senator — along with GOP frontrunner Donald Trump — by large margins. In the region, Sanders was winning with 10,944 votes to Clinton’s 4,606 as of 10:30.
Margins were as wide as nearly 3 to 1.
In Greenfield, the county’s largest town, Sanders beat Clinton nearly 3 to 1, with 3,003 votes to 1,142. Turnout was running as high as 62 percent, a high number even for hotly contested presidential primaries like this one, which the Hawley town clerk said brought out many new young voters, even in one of the state’s smallest towns. The local trend differed from the statewide early results, which saw the two Democrats seesawing for the lead throught night after polls closed at 8 p.m. With half the state’s results in, Clinton was pulling ahead.
GOP frontrunner Donald Trump cruised to an easy victory in Massachusetts as Clinton and Sanders battled for delegates. In a number of Pioneer Valley towns, Ohio Gov. John Kasich managed a second place showing. At press time, on the Republican side in the county, Trump, with 2,421 votes, was followed by Kasich with 1,239, and Marco Rubio with 1018. While Clinton had much of the party establishment behind her, Sanders banked on strong support from the state’s college-age voters to help keep his candidacy afloat.
Republican voters gave Trump the win over fellow Republican candidates Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Kasich, who were hoping for strong second place finishes.
Susan Triolo, a lifelong progressive and a retired schoolteacher who spent the day working for Sanders in her hometown of Sunderland, was thrilled Tuesday night to hear her candidate led there 635-272.
“We’ve worked really hard for Bernie here in Franklin County. We have a really solid group of people,” she said in a telephone interview from a gathering at Taylor’s Tavern in Greenfield. “I support Bernie because he is the only person who is going to move the progressive agenda forward in the United States.”
Regardless how the county goes, Greenfield resident TJ Strahan said he looks forward to the presidential race coming down to Clinton (his preferred candidate) and businessman Donald Trump.
“It’s going to be very interesting,” he said, adding that he supports the former first lady because, “I think she’s the most qualified candidate running. She started her career out of college helping people. She has always been there to help the general public. She’s devoted her life to making changes in our country and to helping people.”
Greenfield resident Jim Bates was pleasantly surprised that Trump was winning here.
“I think he can make some changes that the government needs. He’s not status quo. He’s pretty much an independent,” Bates said. “There are a lot of intelligent voters in Massachusetts and, at least on the Republican side, they made the right choice.”
Bates said he supports Trump because the billionaire has proven himself to be a job creator. He also criticized people who say they want a Washington outsider, only to vote for someone else when the opportunity arises.
For Republicans, Massachusetts has 42 delegates awarded on a proportional basis. That means multiple candidates will likely receive delegates. For Democrats the process is a bit trickier. Massachusetts has 116 Democratic delegates. Of those, 25 are superdelegates free to back whichever candidate they want. At least 17 already have pledged support to Clinton and one is backing Sanders, according to an Associated Press survey. The remaining 91 delegates are awarded on a proportional basis — rather than winner-take-all.