May 4, 2016

Sanders Upsets Clinton in Indiana

But his win doesn’t change the delegate math, which still puts him far behind.

Aaron P. Bernstein/ZUMA

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Bernie Sanders outperformed polls and defeated Hillary Clinton in the Indiana Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday. But although his win halts her momentum, it will do little to alter the delegate math or impede Clinton’s likely path to the nomination.

Headed into Tuesday, Clinton had won 1,663 pledged delegates to Sanders’ 1,367, according to the New York Times. Clinton’s lead balloons to 855 when superdelegates are added to the equation.

Just nine states remain in the Democratic contest. Because the party, unlike the Republican Party, rewards delegates proportionally in each state, Sanders would have to defeat Clinton by overwhelming margins in order to close the pledged delegate gap. With Donald Trump also further cementing his lead in the Republican race, it seems probable that Clinton will continue to shift her attention to running a campaign against her likely general election opponent rather than her primary campaign foe.

But Tuesday’s win means Sanders is likely to keep trekking on, at least until California votes on June 7. His campaign has outpaced Clinton in donations in recent months, so he has the funds to keep things going until the end of the process. The longer he sticks around, the more leverage he might gain for extracting concessions from Clinton to include his pet policies in the party platform at this summer’s Democratic convention. But even after a win on Tuesday, his chances of catching up to her in the delegate count are slim.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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