CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, LOUISVILLE, Kentucky- Hillary Clinton won the Kentucky Democratic primary on Tuesday over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a win by a fraction of a percent, a few thousand votes in fact, and with help from Black voters in Louisville, the state's largest city, and Lexington, its second largest municipality.

She did not, however, give her standard victory speech, an indication, say political pundits, that the former secretary of state is confident that she has Sanders up against the ropes.

With 99 percent of the votes tabulated and 55 delegates at stake, Clinton took Kentucky with 212,318 votes to Sanders' 210, 505, Clinton winning by 46.7 percent, and Sanders 46.3 percent.

Sanders won handily in Oregon Tuesday night, a state with 61 delegates.

There he is beating Clinton 56 percent to her 46 percent with 75 percent of the vote counted.

The delegates are split per the DNC rules for Democrats.

Tuesday's election results have not slowed Sanders' grassroots momentum in a race for the Democratic nomination that has become increasingly intense, and mathematically impossible for him to win.

A Democratic presidential candidate must get 2,383 delegates to clinch the nomination and Clinton has 2,294 total delegates, which includes pledged delegates and likely superdelegates. Sanders, has 1,523, hardly enough to stem the tide.

Sanders ran strong in Union and Pike counties of Kentucky where coal miners want systemic change and more jobs, and he also won in rural areas.

Some coal miners are angry over campaign comments Clinton made on her proposed energy policies that they say will cut jobs.

Clinton had stronger support in urban communities.

She beat Sanders in Fayette and Jefferson counties.

Fayette County is 13 percent Black and includes the city of Lexington and its 14 percent Black population, and Jefferson County, led by Louisville and its 33 percent Black population, has  a 20 percent Black population.

Forty-four percent of Kentucky's Black population is in Jefferson County, and 52 percent are in the Louisville Metro area.

The native home of boxing great Muhammad Ali, Louisville, with its 250,000 people,  felt its clout as the two presidential contenders courted the Black vote, and others.

Sanders campaigned in Louisville before Tuesday's primary, and so did Hillary Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton.

Sanders spoke two weeks ago at a rally on the waterfront in downtown Louisville and Bill Clinton at the African American museum in the Russell community.

Just last weekend, Hillary Clinton rallied supporters at St. Stephen, likely the city's most prominent Black church.

Kentuckians have supported the Clinton's at the ballot box.

Bill Clinton, as the Democratic nominee, won  Kentucky in both 1992 and 1996, and Hillary Clinton, in 2008, took the Kentucky primary over Barack Obama by 32 points, though she lost the nomination to the then junior senator from Illinois.

Obama went on to win the presidency, and he won a second term in 2012.

Sanders was not taken back by his loss in Kentucky and has his win Tuesday night in Oregon to brag about.

He has had a string of recent victories, including the West Virginia primary on May 10.

During a speech before supporters Tuesday night in California, which he made after his win in Oregon, Sanders vowed to "pass medicare for all health care system."

He said that "no real change has ever occurred in our country from the top on down." And he took the opportunity to push for a win in California's upcoming June 7 primary election.

More noticeably, he made it known that the fight is still on, and said unequivocally, "we are in till the last ballot."

California has 475 delegates and is among nine more scheduled Democratic primaries that can bring pledged delegates.

The others are Puerto Rico, New Mexico, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands.

As the upcoming July Democratic convention nears and Clinton moves closer to grabbing the nomination, Sanders simply will not give up, and neither will his supporters.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com