WASHINGTON — After yet another string of lopsided primary losses, Bernie Sanders plans to talk with his supporters to assess the path forward.
“The next primary contest is at least three weeks away. Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign,” Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir said in a Wednesday morning statement.
“In the immediate term, however, he is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable.”
This comes the morning after Sanders lost three more large-state primaries by wide margins, and fell even further behind Joe Biden in the fight for the Democratic nomination.
Biden greatly increased his delegate lead Tuesday and is looking more and more like the presumptive nominee. Sanders lost Florida by a 39-point margin and Illinois by a 23-point margin, and is currently trailing in Arizona by double digits.
Biden now has 1,147 delegates to Sanders’ 861, with more than half of the delegates now awarded. And the novel coronavirus has virtually forced a suspension of the primary calendar, which was already set to thin in the coming weeks, as states move to push back their elections in the face of the pandemic.
The race is all but over. And while coronavirus has effectively put a pause to the campaign, it’s mathematically all but assured that Biden will be the nominee once all the states vote.
Cover: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., participates in a Democratic presidential primary debate at CNN Studios in Washington, Sunday, March 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
