War Room

An early look inside the minds of West Virginia voters

We have some early information on what voters in West Virginia were thinking as they headed to the state's Democratic primary Tuesday.

The exit poll results released thus far show some things that were unsurprising; voters were overwhelmingly white -- African-Americans make up less than 5 percent of the state's population -- and considered the economy the most important issue.

The electorate in the state was also particularly favorable to Clinton. As the Associated Press notes, "Nearly one in four of all ballots were cast by voters 60 and older, and a similar number by West Virginians with no education beyond high school. More than half the voters were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less. Clinton has done particularly well in primaries to date among older, less well-educated and lower-income families."

The exit polls also showed one number potentially worrying to Barack Obama's campaign -- according to CBS News, 51 percent of respondents think Obama shares the views of his controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (According to Time's Mark Halperin, the breakdown on that is this: "Two in 10 voters say Obama shares the views of his former pastor, Rev. Wright, 'a lot.' Another three in 10 say Obama shares Wright's views "somewhat." Nearly a quarter said Obama shares Wright's views "not much" and another quarter said they don't think the candidate shares his former pastor's views at all.")

I'll have more on some other numbers from the exit polls a little later, and I'll repeat my standard disclaimer here -- these exit poll results shouldn't be taken as gospel, both because they're susceptible to the usual sampling errors and because the numbers out this early in the evening tend to be revised to fit the actual vote totals as they come in.

Posted in: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton

Jenny Sanford: "I am willing to forgive Mark"
In a statement, the first lady of South Carolina says she's willing to open to trying to save her marriage
Conservative group: Obama equals Ahmadinejad
In a new ad, a right-wing PAC draws comparisons between the U.S. government and Iran's, as well as the Nazis
Biden in Baghdad
The vice president, now the administration's point man on Iraq, drops in to talk to officials, troops
Sanford's office: "Governor has no plans to step aside"
So far, the calls for the South Carolina governor to resign don't seem to be working

Current Salon Politics Stories

Salon Politics Blogs

Recent Posts

Conservative group: Obama equals Ahmadinejad
In a new ad, a right-wing PAC draws comparisons between the U.S. government and Iran's, as well as the Nazis
Biden in Baghdad
The vice president, now the administration's point man on Iraq, drops in to talk to officials, troops
Sanford's office: "Governor has no plans to step aside"
So far, the calls for the South Carolina governor to resign don't seem to be working
Previous Posts…

War Room RSS Feed

Posts by date

July 2009
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031

About War Room

War Room is written and edited by Alex Koppelman, with contributions from Salon reporters around the country.