In winning the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, Bernie Sanders secured his sixth victory in a row over Hillary Clinton, but the big night didn’t do much to move the delegate math in the Vermont senator’s favor.
Despite winning the primary by almost 14 percent and over 130,000 votes, Senator Sanders came away with only six more delegates than Clinton, 47–41, according to tracking data from the Associated Press.
According to MSNBC, so many party lawmakers and insiders, or superdelegates, may throw their weight behind Clinton, that Sanders may end up with only four more Wisconsin delegates than his rival.
Clinton has secured 1,279 pledged delegates from the various Democratic primaries and caucuses so far, while Sanders has earned 1,027. That 252 delegate gap may be surmountable if Sanders continues winning, but once superdelegates enter the picture, the terrain gets tougher, as 469 have said they will back Clinton, and only 31 have voiced their intent to support Sanders.
At present, Clinton has 1,748 of the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, with Sanders trailing at 1,058.
Many superdelegates have yet to declare their support for either candidate, but US Representative Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin) told RT that he will consider the results in Wisconsin and those throughout the rest of the primary season before making his own decision. While the Sanders campaign has raised the possibility of there being contested convention this summer, Pocan said he doesn’t think it’s likely.
“Someone, I think, will have a clear number of delegates by the time we get to our convention,” he said, though he didn’t completely rule out the idea if Sanders’ momentum continues.
For the Sanders campaign, winning the Wyoming caucus on Saturday and moving into the New York primary riding the wave of numerous consecutive victories is strategically key.
“If we can get into New York state with a real bounce, with real momentum, I think we got a real shot to win that,” Sanders said to RT. “And if we can beat Hillary Clinton in her own home state, I think you got a lot of Democrats all over this country saying, ‘You know what? Bernie Sanders is the guy.’”
If Sanders wins in New York, which awards 247 delegates, he believes establishment figures will reconsider their support for Clinton because polls suggest he is a stronger general election candidate against Trump than she is.
“Their strongest desire,” he said, “is to make sure that people like Trump [do] not get into the White House.”
If Sanders wants to win the nomination without the help of superdelegates, he needs to win 60 percent of the remaining delegates available through primaries and caucuses.