US presidential poll 2016: Sanders will look to win Hawaii, Alaska and Washington today

Washington, March 26: After his 2-1 win over former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential nomination race on March 22, Vermont Senator will look to reduce the gap with his dominating rival in the caucuses in Hawaii, Alaska and Washington on Saturday (March 26).

Sanders, who has been giving Clinton a fight consistently, spent much of the week on the West Coast to connect to the liberal activists with an aim to sweep the three states and narrow the gap with Clinton. The two are now separated by more than 300 delegates, more than what Barack Obama had over Clinton in the 2008 election primaries.

Saturday's voting is important even if Sanders is trailing Clinton by a quite a bit of a margin. For another string of losses could show the former secretary of state's vulnerabilities in the Democratic camp. [66% Americans believe US presidential process is broken: Survey]

One big advantage that Clinton has is the backing of 468 superdelegates (party officials who can back either of the candidates) and that takes her number to 1,691 and with just 29 superdelegates in his kitty, Sanders falls further behind with a tally of just 949. [What is the difference between primaries and caucuses?]

To get nomination, a Democratic candidate needs to have 1,237 delegates.

In these circumstances, Sanders will need to win 58 per cent of the remaining delegates from the primaries and caucuses and he doesn't have much time either. When considering the superdelegates, Sanders has to win 67 per cent of the remaining delegates, which is by no means an easy task.

On Saturday, 142 delegates will be at stake with the state of Washington having 101 of them. Hawaii and Alaska have 16 and 25 delegates, respectively.

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