BURLINGTON, Vt. – Bernie Sanders isn't giving up on his political revolution just yet.

Sanders, who has vowed to stay in the race until voters in each of the 50 states has had their say, signaled Wednesday that he's prepared for a long, drawn-out primary battle with Hillary Clinton, even as the former secretary of state took a commanding lead on Tuesday night.

"We're going forward and this is a campaign to win," Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told reporters at a press breakfast on Wednesday.

Super Tuesday, Sanders' chief strategist Tad Devine said, was "perhaps the best day on the calendar for Hillary Clinton."

"There are a lot of good days ahead in this nominating process for Bernie Sanders," Devine added, pointing to upcoming contests in Nebraska, Kansas and Maine as key opportunities for his candidate.

While Sanders won his home state of Vermont, as well as Oklahoma, Colorado and Minnesota, Clinton took the majority of the Super Tuesday wins, including in delegate-rich places like Virginia and Texas.

Clinton has at least 1,005 pledged and super delegates, while Sanders has at least 373, but Sanders campaign staffers said they believed he can close the pledged delegate gap with Clinton by June.

Devine also suggested that Clinton's lead among super delegates was "soft," as "super delegates are free to support whomever they want in this process."

"Indeed, the last time Hillary Clinton ran in this process 120 super delegates changed their allegiance," he said.

Win some, lose some ... and lose some more

Sanders also struggled to broaden his appeal outside his base of young, white liberal voters, as Clinton saw significant support among black and Hispanic voters.

BURLINGTON, VT — "There was a great diversity in the states we won last night," says @BernieSanders manager Weaver. pic.twitter.com/RMPqFZzmSH — Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) March 2, 2016

Though his campaign has made overtures, Sanders has not been able to make much headway among African Americans. His campaign rallies in states across the country are still disproportionately white.

Devine said that Tuesday's results made clear that "we have to do better with African American voters," noting that Sanders could connect with the black community on the strength of his record, his personal story and his agenda for the future.

"We think as they get to know him better, we're gonna do better," Devine said.

Can Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump? Bernie Sanders strategist Tad Devine: "There are very serious questions about that." — Kasie Hunt (@kasie) March 2, 2016





Holding out hope

On Tuesday evening, even as they watched their candidate face his roughest night of the campaign, Sanders supporters said they were with him all the way.

"We are going to the White House," Donna Bailey, from nearby Bristol, Vermont, told Mashable.

"I think it's a real misconception that the media and other campaigns are winning to say that Bernie can't win," said Bailey.

"We've got to ride it all the way through," said her friend Su White, a Sanders supporter from Lincoln, Vermont.

"Never underestimate Bernie Sanders."

"Never underestimate Bernie Sanders."

Barbie Alsop, who has volunteered at Sanders' campaign headquarters in Burlington, said she thought the Vermont senator should hang on through the bitter end.

"He’ll get my time, anytime he needs it for as much time as he needs it," said Alsop.

She said she believed that if Sanders takes his case to voters in states that vote later in the primary calendar, he could well clinch the nomination.

"You gotta let people be heard all across the country," she said, emphasizing that late-primary states still played a pivotal role in the nomination process. "The people who vote in the later states, it's not their fault that their states are late. Those people have a voice too."

The loyalty of Sanders supporters, who have filled his campaign, give the Vermont senator little incentive to exit the race.

Sanders' campaign announced Tuesday that he had raised more than $42 million during the month of February, from 1.4 million individual contributors who donated an average of $30 each.

Additional reporting from the Associated Press.

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