After recent come-from-behind wins in three states, Bernie Sanders is now within striking distance of Hillary Clinton’s pledged delegate lead. At this time, Sanders needs less than 56% of the remaining pledged delegates to secure a majority of pledged delegates.
Sanders is within 200 pledged delegates in the wake of new boosts from Colorado, Missouri, and Nevada. With over 1,600 pledged delegates still to be allocated throughout the remainder of the Democratic primary, and with several major states with triple-digit delegate counts on the horizon, Sanders has plenty of room to catch up to Clinton before the Democratic National Convention in July.
After recent come-from-behind wins in three states, Bernie Sanders is now within striking distance of Hillary Clinton’s pledged delegate lead. At this time, Sanders needs less than 56% of the remaining pledged delegates to secure a majority of pledged delegates.
Sanders is within 200 pledged delegates in the wake of new boosts from Colorado, Missouri, and Nevada. With over 1,600 pledged delegates still to be allocated throughout the remainder of the Democratic primary, and with several major states with triple-digit delegate counts on the horizon, Sanders has plenty of room to catch up to Clinton before the Democratic National Convention in July.
So why is the media insisting on the tired narrative of inevitability? Partly because they haven’t paid attention to the latest developments.
In early April, Sen. Sanders flipped Clark County, by far Nevada’s largest county, at the Clark County Democratic Party Convention, ending up with 2,964 county delegates to Hillary Clinton’s 2,386. Clinton had previously won Clark County 4,774 to 3,928 during the February caucus. However, more of Sanders’ delegates showed up at the convention than Clinton’s, meaning unelected alternate delegates could take the place of Clinton’s absent delegates, who ultimately went for Sanders.
Several days after flipping Clark County, Sanders ended up beating Clinton in county delegates at the Missouri Democratic Party’s mass meetings on April 7. Should Sanders’ delegates show up at the Congressional District meetings in May, Sanders will have won 37 of Missouri’s pledged delegates to Hillary Clinton’s 34.
To further pad his delegate total, Sanders won Colorado by an even larger margin at this weekend’s state convention than he did on March 1. According to the Denver Post, Sanders walked away with 41 of the 66 pledged delegates, while Hillary Clinton won just 25. When Sanders won on Super Tuesday, the split was only 38-28.
That Sanders managed to cut the former First Lady and Secretary of State’s lead by 24 pledged delegates in the last two weeks is a testament to how the senator and his supporters work tirelessly at securing the Democratic nomination — even when the mainstream media isn’t paying attention.
Before this week’s new shifts in pledged delegate totals, Vox’s delegate tracker had 1,310 pledged delegates for Hillary Clinton and 1,094 for Bernie Sanders. But as of Saturday night, Sanders has 1,105 pledged delegates to Clinton’s 1,299, a difference of only 194 — hardly an “insurmountable” lead for the “presumptive nominee.” Furthermore, Sanders is likely to pick up even more when other caucus states have their statewide Democratic conventions over the next month.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media continues to grossly inflate the delegate gap, either by including superdelegates (despite direct instruction from Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC not to do so), by discounting Washington’s tentative delegate count, or by simply not staying on top of the recent state-level shifts detailed above. The reported gap in delegate totals between Sanders and Clinton from even the most non-partisan media outlets are misleading (
FiveThirtyEight: 206, New York Times: 220), while others are downright deceitful (NBC: 664, CBS: 695).
While Clinton still maintains a considerable lead when superdelegates are factored in, there are still roughly three months to go before those superdelegates cast their ballots at the Democratic National Convention. Should Bernie Sanders win the New York primary, even if just by a slim margin, and if he manages to win at least three of the five states voting on April 26, many of Clinton’s superdelegates may start to reconsider their positions.
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