Hillary Clinton Is Already Talking About November, But Sanders Lives to Fight Another Day

Even before Super Tuesday began, Hillary Clinton had been treating the primary as essentially over. She is, of course, continuing to campaign for the nomination, but her speeches no longer draw much contrast with her rival, Bernie Sanders. Instead, she is almost exclusively focused on Donald Trump and the November election.

There's no doubt that Clinton won big on Super Tuesday, taking seven of the 11 states up for grabs, bringing her to a total of 577 delegates for the national convention. But Sanders did what he needed to do Tuesday night, winning four states, and now has 386 delegates under his belt. 2,383 delegates are needed to earn the Democratic nomination.

Sanders went into Super Tuesday as the clear underdog to Clinton, but the Vermont senator was able to pick up four of the five states he targeted and drew Clinton to a near-tie in Massachusetts, where she beat him by just two points.

In a post-Super Tuesday conference call from Vermont on Wednesday morning, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver cast the evening as a "fantastic night," while admitting that "yes we're behind, [Clinton] has a substantial advantage" in delegates.

Related: Clinton and Trump Cement Their Leads on Super Tuesday

Still, Weaver and campaign senior strategist Tad Devine said the campaign will go on and has been looking at possible scenarios "as early as this morning" in which Sanders could come out with a delegate advantage before the Democratic National Convention in July. Sanders plans to take the campaign through all 50 states, they said, just as Clinton did in her race against Barack Obama in 2008.

Sanders certainly has the money to do so: His campaign outraised Clinton in both January and February. But there's no question that Sanders' path is difficult.

Clinton won Georgia and Texas last night, two of the largest states (and thus biggest delegate holders) in the country. And she holds substantial leads in other big states like Florida and Michigan, which will vote later this month, as well as California and New York, which come much later in the primary calendar.

Sanders will need to start winning more delegates beginning this weekend, Devine and Weaver said, when Kansas, Louisiana, Maine and Nebraska will vote. Sanders has focused in particular on the Maine caucuses this Saturday, as well as the Michigan primary on March 8. His campaign also argued that by the time New York and California get a chance to vote, in April and June respectively, they expect to be able to "compete and win".

Related: Sanders and Clinton Are Battling for Super Tuesday Delegates in Canada and Abroad

But Super Tuesday showed that one of Sanders' biggest problems early in this campaign has yet to be resolved: his inability to beat Clinton among non-white voters.

There has been much speculation that Sanders is improving with Latino voters, and his campaign argued that he could not have won Colorado last night without strong Latino support, but there isn't much reliable data to back up that claim. Sanders won ten of the 15 counties in Colorado with the highest Latino populations, but the demographics of those who actually showed up to vote are unclear. Meanwhile, in the Texas primary last night, Clinton beat Sanders among Hispanic voters by 34 points, according to exit polling.

And among black voters, a major force in the Democratic party, Sanders has a much bigger problem. More than 80 percent of African-American voters supported Clinton in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia last night — just as they did in South Carolina last week.

Related: After Super Tuesday, Republicans Are Running Out of Time to Stop Donald Trump

Both Weaver and Devine acknowledged that the Sanders campaign is struggling with black voters, but Weaver argued that the voting bloc is "not monolithic." Sanders could perform much better with African-American voters in other regions, he said, pointing specifically to the Michigan primary next Tuesday.

"We stipulate that, you know, we have to do better with African-American voters between now and the end of the process. … We think as they get to know him better and understand where he's come from and what he's saying, we're going to do better," Devine said.

During the conference call, Devine argued alternately that Sanders could win the nomination and that he would make Clinton the nominee by staying in the race up to the convention, just as she did for Obama in 2008.

Asked by a reporter whether Sanders should just drop out and support Clinton to unite the party, Devine disagreed, arguing that the Sanders campaign is bringing in many new voters who will help the ultimate Democratic nominee in November.

"Realistically, the best thing we can do is continue to challenge her … and not just for Hillary Clinton's sake, but for the sake of the Democratic party," Devine said.

Follow Sarah Mimms on Twitter: @SarahMMimms.

Watch the VICE News documentary America's Election 2016: South Carolina's Black Vote: