Hillary Clinton dominated Tuesday's Democratic presidential primaries, dealing another significant blow to Bernie Sanders' chances of securing the party's nomination.
Ahead of Tuesday's primaries, Clinton had 1,428 pledged delegates, while Sanders had 1,153. (Winning the nomination requires 2,382 delegates, including unpledged superdelegates.) In order to get on track to overtake Clinton in the delegate race, Sanders needed to win big in Tuesday's contests. That didn't happen.
Clinton easily won Pennsylvania and Maryland, as polls had anticipated, and also took Delaware, while Sanders won Rhode Island. Clinton also eked out a win in Connecticut.
Of the 384 pledged delegates up for grabs Tuesday, Clinton will go home with more than half of them.
Tuesday's slate of Northeast primaries was the last big block of contests until June 7, when voters in states that include California and New Jersey head to the polls. Until then, there are a just a handful of delegate-heavy contests, including Indiana, Oregon and Kentucky.
California, with its 475 pledged delegates, could be a big opportunity for Sanders to make up some lost ground. The senator has narrowed Clinton's lead in the state, and the primary is still five weeks away. However, Sanders would still need to win by a significant margin in California and the other remaining states to pass Clinton in pledged delegates.
When you factor in superdelegates, Clinton's lead is wider: Clinton had 1,946 pledged and unpledged delegates going into Tuesday's primaries; Sanders had 1,192. While Sanders could wage a campaign to flip superdelegates to support him, it's unlikely he could pull that off if he doesn't win the popular vote.
Sanders conceded this himself during an MSNBC town hall earlier this week.
"At the end of the process, frankly, if we are behind in the pledged delegates, I think it's very hard for us to win," Sanders said.
Sanders, however, has vowed to stay in the race until the party convention, and he has the money to do so.
Before You Go
