Bernie Sanders beats Clinton in West Virginia primary

With victories in Indiana and now West Virginia, Bernie Sanders has started another winning streak against Hillary Clinton. Like his five-state run in April, however, it will do little to slow her steady march to the Democratic nomination.

Exit polls show the West Virginia vote was particularly quirky. Almost 40% of Democratic voters there said they wanted a president less liberal than Barack Obama – and that group favoured avowed socialist Sanders by more than a two-to-one margin.

Mr Sanders also overwhelmingly carried the 27% who want a president more liberal than Mr Obama, external.

Such a result makes sense if some of Sanders’s support is, in fact, an anyone-but-Clinton vote.

At this point the Vermont senator will likely take help wherever he can get it. He should be competitive in the next four contests, but could hit a wall in the June mega-prize, California. Its diverse electorate favours Mrs Clinton, and anything but an unprecedented Sanders win there would seal his fate.

Until then, however, Mr Sanders will continue to be a constant and unpleasant reminder to Mrs Clinton that there are Democratic voters still unwilling to fully get on board her campaign.