Park County is relatively short on Democrats, but you wouldn’t have known that from the size or enthusiasm of the crowd that gathered on Saturday in Cody.

Bolstered by a strong showing for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 165 people attended Saturday’s Park County Democratic Caucus; another 105 effectively voted absentee by filling out a “surrogate” form in advance.

County Democrat officials and attendees were pleased with the amount of participation.

“If we’d walked in and there’d only been 30 people, I would not have been shocked. So this is nice,” said caucus-goer Trent Holder of Cody.

Holder was there to support Sanders, who received 155 of the votes cast (or 61.5 percent). Former New York Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — apparently boosted by the surrogate forms — received 97 votes (38.5 percent).

Across Wyoming, Sanders earned 55.7 percent of the vote and some momentum, but he was unable to cut into Clinton’s lead in the race (see related story below).

Don Kirk of Cody said Sanders has him excited about politics for the first time in several decades, saying the candidate has similarly “ignited a fire” among young people.

Kirk said the best way to help the future of today’s youth is to pick a progressive candidate “that’s going to lead us the next step forward.”

Sanders’ platform includes calls for providing Medicare to everyone, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and providing free tuition at public colleges and universities.

Kirk has heard it said that Sanders is aiming too high with his goals, but he rejected that argument.

“I’m not willing just to accept status quo, because that’s what we’ve done for years,” Kirk said, adding, “We need real change out there. We need someone who has been dedicated to us for years and years.”

One of Sanders’ youthful supporters, Rebecca Ruppert of Powell, said she doesn’t naively think Sanders would be able to change everything at once. However, she does think he would at least make incremental changes that other politicians have not.

Ruppert cited concern with the large number of people struggling with debt ranging from student loans to medical bills.

“It’s really hard to get out from under that,” she said. “And then also, with minimum wage being stagnant at $7.25 ... it can’t go on like this, you know?”

Ruppert added that she doesn’t want “this racist rhetoric with (Republican presidential contender) Donald Trump to become the norm;” she described Sanders as someone who cares about the needs of all people.

Ford Roes of Cody, who was also backing Sanders, said part of the senator’s appeal is “the outsider aspect — not just the same name that we’re used to seeing over and over and over.”

However, Clinton had her enthusiasts, too.

Kelly Tamblyn of Cody said she recently registered as a Democrat to support Clinton.

“While we all have the same goals, she is definitely the one that can build the bridge to get us there,” Tamblyn said. Tamblyn said Clinton has the experience to face any of the country’s problems “and I really, really feel passionate about how she fights for the underdogs and always has.

“Whether it’s for a nomination or not, she is always for those in need,” Tamblyn said.

Fellow Clinton supporter Nancy Crye of Cody was pleasantly surprised with how strong of a showing her candidate made in Park County.

“Very little time was spent here by the Hillary people,” Crye said, saying Sanders’ campaign put in a lot more effort.

(Hillary for America Campaign Manager Robby Mook released a statement framing the candidate’s split with Sanders on Wyoming’s national convention delegates as “outperforming expectations.”)

Crye had worried that, in Park County, Clinton wouldn’t even reach the 15 percent threshold needed to be considered a “viable” candidate.

“I was sweating that, and so it was nice to see the supporters came out for her,” she said.

Park County Democratic Party Chair Mike Specht of Clark said Clinton’s people generally made phone calls and sent mailers to local Democrats, while Sanders put workers on the ground.

“They’ve had people in Park County working for over a month on get out the vote,” Specht said.

Both campaigns paid significant attention to the state, including recent visits by Sanders and his wife Jane, while President Bill Clinton stopped by to stump for his wife.

“The Democrats didn’t write Wyoming off,” Specht said.

By the numbers

Wyoming likely will be conceded by national party leaders in the general election, as registered Republicans outnumber Democrats more than three to one.

In Park County, there are more than eight Republicans for every Democrat. Despite that, more local Democrats participated in this year’s presidential nominating process than local Republicans.

The Park County Republican Party’s precinct caucuses drew around 150 people last month. GOP leaders said that may have been the best turnout on record, but with more than 9,800 Republicans in the county, it means less than 2 percent of them participated.

Meanwhile, with 252 votes cast, more than 21 percent of the county’s 1,186 Democrats participated in their party’s caucus. (Specht noted during the caucus that, unlike the more complicated GOP process, all local Democrats got a chance to cast a vote for the contender of their choice.)

Park County Democratic Party Vice Chair Linda Pettengill of Powell said there’s been a coordinated effort by the state party “to try to get the Democrats to come out of the bushes, to try to take offices. Even if you lose, just get out there, because so many people seem to be intimidated.”

Pettengill said Democrats plan to run for at least a couple local offices.

“I’m hoping it’s turning around,” she said.

Depending on your perspective, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders won, tied or lost the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination in Wyoming.

Sanders earned what the New York Times described as “a symbolic triumph, if not a race-altering one” after picking up roughly 55.7 percent of the vote in Saturday’s Democratic caucuses.

Sanders learned of his more than 11-point victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton while delivering a speech in New York City.

“There are probably more people in this room than there are in Wyoming,” Sanders joked to the crowd. “But it’s actually a very beautiful state. We appreciate and thank the people of Wyoming so much for their support.”

The Vermont Senator has now won eight of the last nine contests across the country.

However, despite winning the vote in Wyoming, Sanders gained no ground on Clinton in the actual race for the nomination.

A candidate must secure 2,383 delegates at the Democratic National Convention to become the party’s nominee. Because he narrowly failed to get 57.1 percent (or 8/14ths) of the vote, Sanders and Clinton each got seven of Wyoming’s 14 delegates that were up for grabs on Saturday.

On top of that, Clinton has already secured the support of Wyoming’s four superdelegates — state Democratic party officials who automatically get to go to the convention.

It means Clinton likely will get the backing of 11 of the state’s 18 delegates to the national convention (roughly 61 percent).

Clinton leads Sanders by roughly 220 delegates, according to her campaign.

“Thanks to the help of thousands of volunteers, Hillary is winning the popular vote by almost 2.4 million and has a nearly insurmountable lead in pledged delegates that will become harder and harder to overcome after each contest,” Hillary for America campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement about the Wyoming results.