Sanders gets mostly symbolic victory in West Virginia

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., won Tuesday’s West Virginia primary, the only competitive presidential race of the day. As the last man standing in the Republican campaign, Donald Trump won in West Virginia and also in Nebraska, the other contest held Tuesday.

Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Nebraska, but it was a symbolic victory only. Democrats in Nebraska caucused in March and chose Sanders.

The self-described democratic-socialist thanked voters in West Virginia for what he called a “tremendous victory,” but the state will give him only a modest boost in the delegate count because the Democrats award delegates proportionally. The senator can expect to pick up about 13 delegates from West Virginia.

Clinton still has a comfortable lead of about 300 assigned delegates and a generous lead among superdelegates, who can vote however they please at the convention. Clinton has support pledged from 523 superdelegates to Sanders’ 39.

Though the White House has avoided endorsing a Democratic candidate, it clearly played favorites Tuesday when Vice President Joe Biden told ABC News he expects Clinton to win.

“I feel confident that Hillary will be the nominee, and I feel confident she’ll be the next president,” Biden said.

On the Republican side, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who suspended his campaign last week after losing to Trump in Indiana, raised eyebrows Tuesday when he told radio host Glenn Beck he would be open to restarting the campaign if he won any more primaries. Before dropping out, Cruz was favored to win in Nebraska, Montana, and South Dakota. But if Cruz left the door cracked on his way out, Nebraska voters slammed it shut Tuesday, giving Cruz just 18 percent of the vote and Trump 61 percent.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.