It was a landslide victory for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders Saturday in the Alaska Democratic cuacuses. Vermont Sen. Sanders pulled in 81.6 percent of the vote while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had just 18.4 percent. The record turnout Saturday was 119% of the turnout in 2008, and far more than anticipated, according to Alaska Democratic Party officials. They say almost 11,000 Alaskans cast votes for President at the caucuses held at 42 locations across the state. In District 31, which had caucus locations in Homer and Kenai, there was also record turnout and all 16 delegates went to Sanders.
The southern Kenai Peninsula caucuses were a reflection of what happened in schools, gymnasiums and community buildings across the state.
“I’m a Bernie Guy, that’s why I’m here,”said Tim O’Leary.
Just after 10 a.m. Saturday, O'Leary was signing in for the District 31 caucus at Homer High School. He was already a registered democrat, but he said it was Bernie Sanders’ anti-establishment message that brought him out.
“Because he’s the best that we’ve got, the best that’s come down the pike in years, and years, and years and we’ve waited an awful long time for a credible person to finally stand up to the establishment,” said O'Leary.
Tessa Drais brought her 9-month-old daughter, Violet, with her to the caucus and said her baby was the reason she was supporting Sanders.
“I support his stance on universal healthcare and as well as public education. That’s not something I really had access to and I’m looking out for my daughter,” said Draise.
Amy Christianson said there was one main reason she was behind Sanders.
“I’m for Bernie because he’s against war,” said Christianson.
Christianson says she caucused for Clinton in 2008, but this time around she’s feeling the Bern.
“I believe that he can light a fire under the congress and the senate like nobody else has. He has lit a fire under tons of people in this country. There’s millennials coming out to vote for him, there are people showing up from all over – I’m so proud of Homer. Yeah Homer! And Bernie Sanders is exciting and he’s a breath of fresh air, but you know what, for 30 years he’s been saying the same stuff. And right now, 30 years later, this country is ripe for someone like Bernie Sanders,” said Christianson.
There were a few Clinton supporters at the Homer Caucus, like Vivian Finlay.
“I’m impressed with Homer that we have such great support for Bernie and his progressive philosophies – I think it’s great. I’m wishing there were more for Hillary,” said Finlay.
She says Clinton is the pragmatic choice.
“Because I think that she is the most likely candidate to win the National Election,” said Finlay.
However, in District 31 only 67 people caucused for Clinton and that did not meet the threshold of 86 votes or 15 percent, so all 16 of the delegates went to Sanders.
Elizabeth Diament is the District 31 Party Chair for the Democratic Party.
“This is way more people than we expected to show up,” said Diament.
Diament said they were anticipating around 200 people.
“There’s been a really good effort on certain campaign sides to really pull out the numbers and a lot of people who aren’t normally democrats and wouldn’t register a democrat really feel strongly about one or the other candidates in this race. I think that they have committed to come and sign up and join our party to caucus for those candidates so it’s really turning up our numbers,” said Diament.
Diament says a record number of people showed up to caucus in District 31: 571 total– 498 in Homer and 73 at the district’s second location in Kenai.
Seldovia was the caucus location for communities on the south side of Kachemak Bay, including Port Graham, Nanwalek and Halibut Cove.
Nineteen people participated in the Seldovia Caucus. Fourteen voted for Sanders and 5 for Clinton. Their votes were tallied for District 32.
District 30, Kenai/Soldotna had 193 participate in their caucus. 144 backed Sanders while 49 supported Clinton.
539 Delegates were selected across the state to attend the State Democratic Convention in Anchorage in May 13th-15th in Anchorage. 440 of them will represent Sanders and 99 Clinton.
At the state convention, 16 delegates will be elected to go to the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July, along with four undesignated delegates.
A record number of voters, 10, 617, participated in Alaska’s Democratic Caucuses on Saturday.
Complete district-by-district results can be found on the website of the Alaska Democratic party.
