Clinton will add to delegate lead after Michigan, Mississippi contests

Hillary Clinton is projected to add slightly to her delegate lead after splitting Mississippi and Michigan with Bernie Sanders on Tuesday night. 

But the key to the delegate count is the margin. 

Clinton cleaned up in Mississippi, winning 83 percent of the vote, according to The Associated Press. Sanders on the other hand, finished with just 16 percent, 1 point above the threshold to win delegates. That gave Clinton an estimated 28 delegates, compared to just one for Sanders by the AP’s count, with seven more unaccounted for at midnight. 

The tight margin in Michigan will likely prevent Sanders from narrowing the delegate gap, despite his win there. The AP projected Sanders the winner with 50 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 48 percent. That will give him at least 63 pledged delegates to Clinton’s 52, the AP reports, with another 15 left outstanding. As long as those delegates are bound around the state’s margin, Clinton win the Tuesday night delegate haul.

That will essentially hold her pledged delegate lead of about 200 steady. 

The Democratic race awards two types of delegates: pledged and unpledged, better known as superdelegates. 

Pledged delegates are awarded based off of results in primaries and caucuses, while superdelegates are party leaders given the freedom to support the candidates of their choice. They can also switch support at any point until the convention. 

On top of Clinton’s approximately 200 pledged delegates, her lead among superdelegates is even larger. In total, the AP shows Clinton with 1,220 delegates to Sanders’s 571, a count that includes the partial results from Tuesday night. 

Candidates need 2,383 delegates to secure the nomination.