Clinton has another big night and is poised to become first female major party presidential nominee

“We will build on a strong progressive tradition f-rom Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama and I applaud Senator Sanders and his millions of supporters for challenging us to get unaccountable money out of our politics and to give greater emphasis to closing the gap of inequality,” Clinton said. “I know together we will get that done, because whether you support Senator Sanders or you support me, there’s much more that unites us than divides us.” 

Heading into the day’s contests, the Sanders campaign indicated this would be a pivotal turning point in the Democratic race. In an interview with the New York Times, Sanders’ senior adviser, Tad Devine, said his team would re-examine its approach based on the night’s returns. However, Devine was clear Sanders would remain in the running no matter what.

“If we are sitting here and there’s no sort of mathematical way to do it, we will be upfront about that,” Devine said. "If we have a really good day, we are going to continue to talk about winning most of the pledged delegates because we will be on a path toward it. If we don’t get enough today to make it clear that we can do it by the end, it’s going to be hard to talk about it. That’s not going to be a credible path. Instead, we will talk about what we intend to do between now and the end and how we can get there.”

Sanders took the stage at a packed arena in Huntington, West Virginia shortly after the results were announced in Maryland and told his supporters they are "revolutionaries” who can be “powerful” if they take on the country’s ultra wealthy. As he has throughout the primary, Sanders mocked the media for dismissing him as a “fringe candidate” when he jumped into the race a year ago.

“We’re taking on the most powerful political organization in America,” Sanders said of his Clinton’s campaign.

He emphasized the 17 contests his campaign has won so far. Sanders also pointed to poll results to make the case he would perform better than Clinton in the general election, an argument his campaign has made as it attempts to persuade delegates to switch sides. He referenced national polls that show him performing better against Republican frontrunner Donald Trump than Clinton does and indications he has greater support f-rom independents.

“That is the point that I hope the delegates to the Democratic convention fully understand,” he said. “In the general election, everyone, Democrat and Republican, has a right to vote for the president.”

Sanders did not attack Clinton for her ties to Wall Street or paid speeches to Goldman Sachs, though he brought up those issues throughout his campaign, including just last week. This is a pronounced change in tone, with Sanders making the case for why he is a better nominee than Clinton while backing away f-rom direct attacks on her that could hurt her in the general.

Following her win in New York last Tuesday Clinton’s communications director Jennifer Palmieri used more direct language than the campaign ever had in discussing the state of the race. Palmieri repeatedly said the campaign believes “Clinton is going to be the nominee.” Though she said Clinton would continue to “compete” in the primary regardless of the results, Palmieri urged Sanders to back down f-rom making attacks.

“We believe that she is going to be the nominee. He needs to decide if, as he closes out the Democratic primary, if he is going to continue on the destructive path that he started down with the New York primary whe-re he is making personal and c-haracter attacks against her,” Palmieri said.