The two likely protagonists in the U.S. presidential election this November had contrasting fortunes on Tuesday. While Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump swept the Indiana primary, his Democratic counterpart Hillary Clinton suffered a slight bump in her march to her party's convention as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders scored an upset victory.
However, the vote result was not expected to significantly trim Clinton's sizable lead in the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination, Newsmax reports. Sanders won 43 delegates after the Indiana primary compared to the 37 won by Clinton—a difference of just six delegates.
Before the Indiana vote results, Clinton already had 2,220 delegates, more than 90 percent of the 2,383 delegates and superdelegates needed to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press tally. Sanders had 1,449, or about 57 percent.
Despite his campaign's bleak outlook, Sanders gave no indication that he'll drop out of the race before the final Democratic primaries in June.
Speaking to reporters after winning Indiana, Sanders admitted he is facing "an uphill battle" but that he has gained the "momentum we need to take us to the finish line."
"I understand that Secretary Clinton thinks that this campaign is over," Sanders said. "I've got some bad news for her. Tonight we won a great victory in Indiana. Next week we are going to be in West Virginia. We think we have a real shot to win in that great state. And then we're going to Kentucky and we're going to Oregon. And we think we have a pretty good chance to win there as well."
However, the lack of winner-take-all states on the Democratic contests makes it very difficult for Sanders to close the delegate gap, The New York Times reports.
If Clinton maintains her current level of support in the remaining races, she will earn a majority of the pledged delegates by June 7.
To have a shot at overtaking Clinton in pledged delegates, Sanders would need a series of landslide victories in the few remaining contests, increasing his vote share to about 75 percent, on average, according to the Times analysis.
