The Delegates Sanders Won In New Jersey

Tuesday was the primary night we've all been waiting for, when six states held their contests for the Democratic nomination. More delegates were at stake on June 7 than any other day in the 2016 election aside from Super Tuesday on March 15. California's massive load of 475 pledged delegates got most of the limelight, but New Jersey offered up a hefty prize of 126 delegates, which were divided between Sec. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders based on their share of the popular vote. How many delegates did Sanders win in New Jersey?

As of this writing, Sanders earned 47 of the Garden State's delegates, compared to Clinton's takeaway of 73. Sanders' loss in New Jersey was as significant as expected. The two polls available from May to early June showed Clinton with a double-digit lead ranging from 14 to 27 percent, averaging out at 20.5 percent, according to Real Clear Politics. New Jersey likes Clinton, as attested to not only by Tuesday's results, but by how she's polling against Republican nominee Donald Trump. In hypothetical general election match-up polls from the state, Clinton beats Trump by 9 percent on average. In polls conducted nationally, she has a meager two-percent lead over Trump.

Though Sanders' small delegate haul from the Garden State relative to Clinton's was predictable, it's still a disappointment for the campaign and his supporters. As winning enough pledged delegates through the primary process became increasingly unlikely, Sanders began shifting his focus to the potential of getting superdelegates to back him, undoing Clinton's delegate lead at the Democratic National Convention. However, his poor performance in New Jersey doesn't help his case for superdelegates to switch over to him.

Getting superdelegates into his corner would doubtless be an extremely difficult task, considering that the supers have never, since their inclusion in the nomination process in 1984, tipped a nomination in favor of a candidate with fewer delegates from the primaries. In order to make a compelling case, Sanders needs every last delegate he can get through the primaries. A shocking Michigan-style victory in New Jersey would have given Sanders something to talk up with the superdelegates.

Sanders vowed to keep on fighting, even after the Associated Press reported Monday that Clinton had crossed the delegate threshold. Whether his loss in New Jersey on Tuesday will halt his campaign remains to be seen.