WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) managed to maintain a place in the Democratic presidential contest this week, pulling out wins in four Super Tuesday states.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton still holds a comfortable lead over Sanders, claiming seven states on Tuesday.
Sanders' wins were regionally diverse, ranging from his home state of Vermont in the East to Colorado in the West. But they were in states with one major thing in common: an electorate made up of mostly white voters.
Clinton has dominated with voters of color throughout the race so far, as my colleague Elise Foley pointed out earlier. And she's performed much better in states that have a more diverse electorate.
She got 78 percent of the vote in Alabama, a state where 27 percent of voters are black. She got 71 percent of the vote in Georgia, a state that is 32 percent African-American. Clinton also dominated in South Carolina over the weekend, a state where black people account for 28 percent of the population.
By contrast, Sanders won in Colorado, which is 88 percent white and just 5 percent black. Minnesota is 86 percent white and 6 percent black, while Vermont is 95 percent white and only 1 percent black. Oklahoma is 75 percent white and 8 percent black. (It's worth noting that 21 percent of Coloradans identify as Hispanic or Latino, and that Native Americans make up 9 percent of Oklahoma's population.)
What does this mean going forward? Three of the next six Democratic primaries and caucuses are in extremely white states -- Kansas, Nebraska and Maine. Another is in Michigan, where the population is about 14 percent black, slightly greater than the national average. The remaining two are in Louisiana and Mississippi, states with a significant minority population. In other words, while his numbers with voters of color leave something to be desired, there's probably still some good news for Sanders down the line.
Language has been added to include information about Colorado's Hispanic and Latino residents, as well as Michigan's black population.
