Maine Democrats turned out in record numbers across the state Sunday to give U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont their strong support in statewide caucuses.
Sanders beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with 64 percent of the caucus vote to Clinton’s 35 percent, according to party figures.
Maine Democratic party chair Phil Bartlett says Sanders mounted a better campaign.
“To have so many people turning out for the first time to support their candidate clearly benefited Bernie Sanders and to his credit he’s brought a lot of new people into the process here in Maine,” Bartlett says. “Democrats were willing to come out and spend hours to participate in this caucus process. It’s not always easy. And they have got to be committed and to see so many people who were excited to support their candidate is really inspiring and we think it bodes well for the election in November.”
Sanders picked up the lion’s share of the 25 delegates that will be elected at the state convention — how many is still being determined, as Maine allocates delegates by Congressional District as well as at large.
Maine also has five super delegates — party leaders and office holders — who are not bound by the caucus results.
