The Rocket

Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: News

Media Credit: MCT Campus Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton waves hello to the crowd while at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on April 21 to promote her campaign, later receiving 55 percent of the vote in the primary elections held Tuesday. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: MCT Campus CNN exit polls showed that Clinton received 1,260,444 votes comprised mostly of blue-collared voters and white voters while Obama received 1,046,220 votes from mostly African-American. [Click to enlarge]

Hillary Clinton is Pennsylvania's choice to be the next democratic nominee for president.

Clinton received 55 percent of vote during the Pennsylvania primary election on April 22, beating Barack Obama, who received 45 percent, after more than two million registered democrats in the state went to the polls.

A primary election is when a political party chooses its nominee to go on to run against nominees of other parties in the general election.

The general election will take place Nov. 4.

The Pennsylvania primary was a closed election, meaning that only members who have registered themselves as an affiliate of a political party were able to participate.

John McCain will be the nominee for the Republican Party. In the Republican primary, also held Tuesday, McCain received 73 percent of the votes compared to Ron Paul, who got 16 percent, and Mike Huckabee, who garnered 11 percent.

Although Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary election, Obama is still in the lead with 1,719 delegates compared to Clinton's 1,586. Clinton received 88 delegates for winning Pennsylvania, while Obama took home 69.

According to the CNN exit polls, Clinton was favored by blue-collar voters and both white female and white male voters, while Obama was favored by black voters and voters who have just recently become affiliated with the Democratic Party.

Voters in Northeast Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh and Central/Northern Pennsylvania favored Clinton, while voters in Philadelphia, the CNN exit polls showed, favored Obama.Jessica Cosme, a 20-year-old sophomore political science major, said she was pleased with the outcome of the election.

"I was ecstatic," Cosme said. "I invested a lot of time and energy into it."

Cosme is the events coordinator for the College Democrats and was in charge of the April 11 rally that Chelsea Clinton attended.

Cosme said that she worked for the Clinton campaign and one of the ways that she encouraged people to vote was ensuring them that they had transportation to the polls.

Cosme also worked at the polls and said that she was pleased to see people her age voting.

"I was very happy," Cosme said, "not so much with voter turnout as a whole, but with student turnout."

Kristen Steele, a 20-year-old sophomore majoring in secondary education, Spanish and psychology, chose not to vote in the election.

"I did not vote because I do not feel that either of the candidates are qualified," Steele said.

As of March 24, the last day of eligibility for the primary election, Pennsylvania has 4,119,213 registered Democrats compared to 3,197,586 registered Republicans.

SRU students who did vote said that they chose their candidate by researching and learning about their views.

Also, they keep up with the current status of the candidates and identifying with the one who had similar values.

SRU students who supported Obama were disappointed upon hearing the results, feeling that their candidate was the better choice.

Joel Peters, a 20-year-old sophomore finance major, said although he feels both candidates are qualified for the position, he favors Obama.

"I wasn't too concerned when I found out Obama didn't win," Peters said. "I think he still has enough support throughout the country so I don't think it's going to make a big difference."

Other SRU students said they were pleased with the outcome because they felt that both candidates were qualified nominees and would do well in office.

Some of these students even said they would support the candidates running together because they would make a good team.

"I voted because people, especially in the college-age group, get bashed for not voting or caring," Kayla Moyer, 21, a senior history major, said. "In reality, many of us do care and I felt that it was my responsibility to vote."

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