Hillary Clinton is projected to win four out of the five states voting in Tuesday’s Democratic primaries, including in delegate-heavy Pennsylvania and Maryland, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders picked up a victory in Rhode Island.
Clinton was also carried Delaware and Connecticut in what was a strong showing for the former secretary of state.
Headed into Tuesday’s contest Clinton had collected 1,946 pledged and unpledged delegates compared to Sanders’ 1,192. The winning candidate will need 2,383 delegates to secure the party’s nomination before July’s convention.
Another 384 delegates will be divvied up on a proportional basis on Tuesday. Pennsylvania is the prize of the so-called “Acela primary” with 189 pledged delegates on the table.
Following a resounding defeat in New York’s primary last week, Sanders needed big wins during Tuesday’s contests and in the remaining primaries in order to have any hope of winning the nomination.
The underdog has increasingly fielded questions over whether he will support Clinton for president should she take the nomination. Sanders’ campaign has insisted that the candidate still has a path to victory and that some of the 519 superdelegates supporting Clinton could switch their endorsements.
Perhaps suggesting that the writing is on the wall for Sanders, The New York Times reported earlier on Tuesday that while he has no plans to drop out of the race he will “reassess” his campaign.