Tuesday April 26th were the Democratic primary elections in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.
Another great night for Hillary Clinton that read as much as a hammer blow to the Sanders campaign as it did an electoral victory. Clinton took 4 of the 5 states, winning by 52 pledged delegates and almost half a million votes, taking an overwhelming 293 pledged delegate lead.
Clinton continued to dominate with women, voters over 40 years old, Blacks, and Democrats. Sanders continued his lock on independent voters.
While Clinton did expand her lead and is all but guaranteed the nomination (and the presidency), Tuesday’s elections do little to change the dynamic of the Democratic nomination process, save to place Sanders further back in the rear view mirror, and to make Sanders campaign claims of influence and rationales for continuing the campaign and solicitation of donations ring more hollow.
The math:
1,202 pledged and unpledged delegates remain to be had, and 2,383 are needed to win the nomination to be the party’s candidate.
As it stands now:
Clinton needs 719 more pledged delegates to win with pledged delegates alone, or 71% of those remaining. To win with pledged and super delegates, Clinton needs 232 more, or 19% of those remaining.
Sanders needs 1,012 more pledged delegates to win with pledged delegates alone, or almost 100% of those remaining. To win with pledged and super delegates, Sanders needs 971 more, or 81% of those remaining.
Clearly the numbers are prohibitive for Sanders; this race is over.
The next elections are:
• May 3rd, Indiana, open primary, 83 delegates
• May 7th, Guam, closed caucus, 7 delegates
• May 10th, West Virginia, semi closed primary, 29 delegates
• May 17th, Kentucky, closed primary, 55 delegates; Oregon, closed primary, 61 delegates
About the numbers:
These numbers are the most accurate available. No, CNN, the AP, and Real Clear Politics do not have accurate numbers. They simply report the numbers from election night and often do not update with corrections until the next election night, if at all. They often have charts that auto update without accounting for differences in caucus and primary states.
These numbers are based on the latest information and use the Democratic Party allocation formula, and are updated to account for changes. There is still a limit to their accuracy. As Nevada shows, no delegate counts are final until they are allocated at the Democratic convention in July.