Sanders Campaign Will Travel On, but Path to Victory Is All but Blocked

Nate Cohn, NYT, MARCH 1, 2016

Bernie Sanders has vowed to fight for the presidential nomination until the Democratic convention, but the results Tuesday suggest that he is not anywhere close to being on track to amass a majority of pledged delegates.

Hillary Clinton’s landslide margins in the South and her competitiveness elsewhere translate to an overall lead of around 15 to 20 percentage points nationwide. Her support is anchored by her advantage among black voters, who represent nearly a quarter of Democratic voters and have offered her more than 80 percent of their votes — a tally rivaling or even exceeding the share won by Barack Obama in 2008.

Mr. Sanders, despite pockets of strength, has not fared well enough to overcome such a huge deficit among black voters.

Not even his victories in Colorado, Minnesota and Oklahoma on Tuesday will change that. Mr. Sanders would have needed gigantic wins in these states to entertain the possibility of overcoming his enormous deficit in the South, where the majority of Democrats are African-American.

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