WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The 2016 Democratic primary effectively ended Tuesday night, with Hillary Clinton as the all-but-certain winner but Bernie Sanders barely acknowledging it.

For Clinton, a narrow win in Illinois and double-digit victories across the battleground states of Florida, North Carolina and Ohio provided deliverance from a humbling loss in Michigan a week earlier and finally gave her the space to begin her pivot to Donald Trump and the general election. That left the Vermont senator to deliver his standard 60-minute stemwinder in Phoenix without mentioning a single defeat.


After noting that she now has a 300-delegate lead – which will make it essentially impossible for Sanders to catch up given the rules of the Democratic process -- Clinton turned her attention to the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

“Our commander-in-chief has to be able to defend our country, not embarrass it,” she told her energetic supporters.

“When we hear a candidate for president call for rounding up 12 million immigrants, banning all Muslims from entering the United States,” Clinton said, discussing Trump’s most outrageous policies, “when he embraces torture, that doesn’t make him strong, it makes him wrong.”

With Trump sweeping Florida and knocking Marco Rubio out of the race, Clinton also highlighted the heightened stakes for Democrats, noting that “tonight, it’s clearer than ever that this may be one of the most consequential campaigns of our lifetimes.”

That doesn’t mean Sanders -- fueled by a money machine that never stalls -- will fade into the ether any time soon. The calendar now turns to a string of overwhelmingly white, caucus states like Idaho, Utah, Washington, and Alaska, where he is favored to collect the small piles of delegates available -- 244 delegates in total, counting Hawaii on March 26.

“It’s amazing, he’s a cash machine,” marveled a Clinton insider. “If he loses, he says, ‘big bad Hillary is winning.’ Boom, $5 million. If he wins, it’s like, ‘keep the revolution going!’ Boom, $5 million. We got 1.5 million more votes. But either way, he gets $5 million.”

Clinton on Tuesday night crushed Sanders in Florida -- where there are more eligible voters in South Florida than in all four early nominating states combined -- with a 31-point victory. And she won North Carolina by a hefty 16-point margin, despite a $1 million Sanders ad blitz over the past week that tripled her spending there.

Clinton allies were quick to declare the race over.

"Hillary Clinton's wins tonight effectively ended the Democratic nomination for president,” said Brad Woodhouse, the president of Correct the Record. “It is all but mathematically impossible for Bernie Sanders to overtake her lead. Her message is resonating and hers is the real revolution--a revolution that will break down barriers and that will get things done for the American people."

But if Florida was a bonanza that widened the delegate gap between them, Ohio was the wild card win that allowed Clinton to shift her gaze forward -- her 13-point victory represented a staggering blow to Sanders, who was not able to translate his economic message and opposition to foreign trade deals into success in Ohio and Illinois. In the other industrial Midwestern states to vote Tuesday, Clinton held a slight lead in Missouri with 99 percent of the vote in.

The Clintons had deeper roots in Ohio, which the Democratic frontrunner won eight years ago, and had more union backing there than she did in Michigan. That contributed to big wins across the state -- she won early voters by over 40 points in Cleveland; by almost 30 in Columbus; by almost 40 in Cincinnati; and by over 40 in Dayton, a Clinton campaign aide said, crediting campaign manager Robby Mook’s game plan for the resounding win.

Even as Clinton all-but-announced the next phase of her campaign Tuesday night, campaign operatives said they would continue to fight hard in the Arizona primary March 22, in order to break up Sanders’ expected string of caucus state wins that could follow.

While Sanders booked $1.7 million in ads the week before the Arizona primary, Clinton’s campaign Tuesday night released its first Spanish-language ad, which draws a direct contrast with Trump. Arizona is where the campaign expects to begin ramping up and spending money beginning Wednesday.

If there's one deficit left for the campaign to address, it's cash. Clinton acknowledged as much Tuesday night, imploring her supporters to “join the 950,000 supporters who already have contributed, most less than $100” and guiding them to her website to donate. The campaign followed up with a text signed "H" from Hillary, telling supporters: “If you knocked on doors, talked to friends, pitched in, or voted -- tonight is your victory. Now, let’s bring it home. Chip in $1 to say you’re with me.”

But in reality, unless Sanders is able to defy all odds by defeating Clinton in places like California and New York by landslide margins, his path to the nomination is now essentially blocked.

Even progressive leaders acknowledged as much Tuesday, lauding Sanders for moving Clinton to the left in the primary rather than talking up his chances of actually winning it.

“Clinton has engaged Bernie Sanders in a race to the top on key issues like expanding Social Security instead of cutting it, breaking up Too Big To Fail banks, jailing Wall Street executives who break the law, and debt-free college,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “That was almost unimaginable a year ago.”

Now Clinton confronts a narrowing Republican field that her aides said can only benefit her. “What she offers in terms of her strength as commander in chief, [her promise] to make America whole again, as she says…that’s a good choice for us,” communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters before the polls closed. “For the choice to be clearer, we think that is to our benefit.”

Speaking to reporters briefly outside a polling location in North Carolina Tuesday afternoon, Clinton expressed confidence about her a match-up against Trump.

“He’s gotten a minority -- perhaps a plurality but a minority -- of those who chose to vote in the Republican primaries and caucuses,” Clinton said. “I’ve gotten more votes than he has already. I don’t think he represents the vast majority of Americans, who are more interested in solving our problems than venting our disappointments.”

With a decisive win in a key November battleground, the Clinton campaign got off to a good start. Of the states that voted Tuesday, Florida was the biggest delegate prize and the state where the Clinton campaign has been building a grassroots volunteer base the longest. Florida native and longtime Clinton aide Craig Smith -- the very first hire of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign -- has been working for the campaign organizing volunteers here since last fall.

Sanders, in contrast, didn’t visit the state until last week, but then he did more than just dip his toe in. He went up on television in Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville and held big rallies in Miami, Gainesville and Orlando. But he was a late arrival in a state with extensive early voting; by the time he got on the air, about 750,000 Democrats had already cast their ballots, Florida Democrats said.

“Sen. Sanders wanted to play big here, and I think that the fact that his numbers are not moving is more of a testament to his lack of ability to put together a diverse coalition in a big state like Florida,” said Ashley Walker, Obama’s 2012 Florida state director.

Florida Democrats credited the big win to the state’s diverse population, as well as the deep connection the Clintons have with the state. Bill Clinton campaigned relentlessly in Florida for President Obama in 2012.

“They’ve been down here tirelessly every election cycle,” said Walker. “They’re familiar faces down here for the average voter.” And part of Sanders appeal in other states -- his laser focus on economic inequality -- hurt him in an ethnically and geographically diverse state. “Our state is really eight or nine different states,” said Walker. “Clinton’s work on such a broad range of issues put her in a good position to garner support with all the different groups.”

