If you’ve been keeping up with the presidential election, you’ll know that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have been running a pretty close race this past week. Five states held primaries on March 15, and Clinton took Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio by storm. She also won Illinois by a narrower margin. On Wednesday, Clinton was ahead in the Missouri primary, with 310,602 to 309,071 votes for Sanders. With a difference of less than 1 percent, state officials have delayed announcing Clinton as the victor. In fact, Sanders is eligible to call for a recount—But will he?
According to the The Washington Post, Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver says that the campaign hasn’t come to a decision yet, because the number of votes don’t necessarily translate to delegates’ support. “If it’s not going to make a material difference in the delegate count, we’re not going to put people through it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sanders is still issuing an optimistic message. “With more than half the delegates yet to be chosen and a calendar that favors us in the weeks and months to come, we remain confident that our campaign is on a path to win the nomination,” Sanders said in a statement issued on Tuesday night. But keep in mind that the reality of the numbers is that Hillary now leads by 314 delegates after March 15. Sanders will need to win by enormous measures in order to overtake Clinton’s delegate support.