Bernie Sanders wins in Indiana, but Hillary Clinton remains on course

The former Secretary of State said she was 'focused on moving into the general election' against Donald Trump

The Vermont Senator has struggled to deplete Ms Clinton's delegate lead (EPA)

Yet again, Bernie Sanders has vastly outperformed expectations – and yet again, cold hard maths makes it all but impossible for him to become the Democratic presidential nominee. The Vermont Senator overcame a seven-point poll deficit to beat Hillary Clinton in the Indiana primary last night, by a margin of more than five points.

But while his victory in the Hoosier State should provide the necessary momentum to propel his campaign as far as the California primary on 7 June, it was insufficient to significantly diminish Ms Clinton’s commanding delegate lead.

Before the Indiana vote, the former Secretary of State was more than 320 pledged delegates ahead of her rival, with the deficit rising to more than 800 after factoring in the Democratic Party’s so-called “super-delegates”. Indiana’s 92 Democratic delegates will be distributed proportionally between the candidates, such that the arithmetic remains largely unchanged.

Speaking in Louisville, Kentucky as the Indiana results rolled in, Mr Sanders reminded supporters once again that he had begun his campaign at least 60 points behind Ms Clinton in national polls. He has subsequently won some nine million votes and 18 primaries and caucuses including Indiana.

“We end up winning the vote of people 45 years of age or younger,” he said. “That is important because it tells me that the ideas that we are fighting for are the ideas for the future of America and the future of the Democratic Party.”

In an interview earlier yesterday, Ms Clinton said she was “focused on moving into the general election.” Promising to unify Democrats for the coming battle against Donald Trump, she told MSNBC, “we’re going to have a tough campaign against a candidate who will literally say or do anything. And we’re going to take him on at every turn on what’s really important to the people of our country.”

Mr Sanders has continued to argue that Ms Clinton cannot reach the necessary 2,383 majority to claim the nomination with pledged delegates alone, and that he could potentially “flip” super-delegates to his side at a contested Democratic convention. Despite laying off hundreds of campaign staff last week, he has vowed to pour the majority of his remaining resources into California.

Ms Clinton is due to campaign in the Golden State later this week, where she is around 10 points ahead in recent polls. A closer race there would add weight to Mr Sanders’s attempts to influence the Democratic party agenda. In recent days, he has shifted his focus from Ms Clinton to, in his words, “[putting] together the strongest progressive agenda any political party has ever seen.”

Indiana provided favourable conditions for the Sanders campaign, which reportedly spent some $1.8m (£1.2m) on advertising in the state, while Ms Clinton spent almost nothing. Indiana voters are overwhelmingly white, and the state’s open primary system permits independents to cast a ballot in the Democratic presidential contest.

Mr Sanders has consistently outperformed the frontrunner among both white and independent voters. The California primary will also be open to independents. Latinos, who in previous states have split almost evenly in their support for the two Democratic hopefuls, outnumber non-Hispanic whites in the Golden State.