March 5, 2016 (2016-03-05) 2020 → 71.5% 28.3% Location Hawaii, United States | 23,530 10,125 Date 26 March 2016 | |
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The 2016 Hawaii Democratic caucuses were held on March 26 in the U.S. state of Hawaii as one of the Democratic Party's statewide nomination contests ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
While the State of Hawaii's primary for the 2016 Senate and House elections are scheduled to be held only on August 13, both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party opted out to hold their own caucuses. With the Republican caucus having taken place earlier in March, the Republican Party did not hold any caucuses on March 26, while the Democratic Party held concurrent caucuses in Alaska and in Washington state.
Analysis
Sanders received one of his largest wins in Hawaii, carrying all four counties and every island in the state. He was aided by his high-profile endorsement from Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who ran ads for Sanders encouraging people to caucus for him. Sanders' worst performance was in Oahu which contains the capital city of Honolulu, where he received 63% of the vote. Sanders's victory in Hawaii showed that he could win convincingly in a state where the electorate is majority non-white (in Hawaii it is significantly Asian and Pacific Islander).
At a rally in Wisconsin on March 26, Sanders told supporters “We knew from day one that politically we were going to have a hard time in the Deep South, but we knew things were going to improve when we headed west.”