Delegate math shows Tuesday could close door on Sanders bid

Hillary Clinton can’t win enough delegates on Tuesday to officially knock Bernie Sanders out of the presidential race, but she can erase any lingering honest doubts about whether she’ll soon be the Democratic nominee.

After her victory in New York last week, Clinton has a lead over Sanders of more than 200 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses. As she narrowed Sanders’ dwindling opportunities to catch up, Clinton continued to build on her overwhelming support among superdelegates — the party officials who are free to back any candidate they choose.

In the last few days, Clinton picked up 14 more endorsements from superdelegates while Sanders received one, according to an Associated Press survey.

Factoring in superdelegates, Clinton’s lead stands at 1,944 to 1,192 for Sanders, according to the AP count. That puts her at 82 percent of the 2,383 delegates needed to win the nomination.

At stake Tuesday are 384 delegates in primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. This group of contests offers Sanders one of the last chances on the election calendar to gain ground in pledged delegates and make a broader case to superdelegates to support him.

Yet it appears Clinton could do well enough Tuesday to end the night with 90 percent of the delegates needed to win the nomination, leaving her just 200 or so shy.

The Sanders campaign knows a tough battle awaits in those five states and says it will reassess its effort after Tuesday. If Sanders fails to win significantly in the latest primaries, he won’t have another chance to draw closer in a big way until California votes June 7. “We intend to take the fight all the way to California,” Sanders said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Clinton is already on track to have hit the magic number of 2,383 by that point.

— AP