North Dakota Democrats, including those in the Minot area, gave a strong showing to presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at caucuses across the state Tuesday.

District-level voters in 47 caucuses elected 253 Sanders delegates and 101 Clinton delegates to the state meeting in Bismarck June 18, leaving 40 delegates uncommitted, according to a New York Times report.

Although Clinton recently appeared to sew up the number of needed national delegates to get the nomination, Sanders remains in the race. That makes it likely that support for him will continue through the selection of North Dakota’s national delegates, said Alison Tate, operations director with the state Democratic-NPL Party.

Tate said this year was the first time in many years that North Dakota Democrats have conducted a caucus. The turnout reflected a strong interest in the presidential race.

“Certainly, it exceeded our expectations,” Tate said. “We were very happy with the statewide attendance and the excitement the event brought to the people of North Dakota and the Democratic Party.”

Local party leaders indicated there was a high level of enthusiasm with more than 200 people attending the Minot caucuses, including a number of people new to local party activities.

“There was a lot of support for Bernie, and it was a lot of young kids,” said District 3 District Chairman Bob Wolf. “It’s just really nice to see that they can get behind something they feel passionate about.”

The delegate selection process in the four Minot-area districts was as follows:

District 3: Sanders, 5; Clinton, 1.

District 5: Sanders, 5; Clinton, 1.

District 38: Sanders, 4; Clinton, 1;

District 40: Sanders, 3; Clinton, 1.

North Dakota is entitled to 23 national delegates, of which 16 will be district-level delegates equally divided by gender, and four will be at-large, with two alternates. Also selected will be two pledged delegates who are elected or party officials, such as a legislator, other state, county or local official or a party leader.

Rules allow for Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and National Committeeman Chad Nodland and Committeewoman Renee Pfenning to serve as unpledged delegates along with two other party leaders.