Sanders’ campaign had hoped he could pull off an upset in just one state that voted on Tuesday. Having fallen short of that mark, Shakir’s statement attempted to buy some time for the campaign as it assessed its future.

“The next primary contest is at least three weeks away. Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign,” he said. “In the immediate term, however, he is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable.”

In an email to supporters, Shakir was even more blunt. “No sugarcoating it, last night did not go the way we wanted,” he said. After likely voting on coronavirus legislation, he said, Sanders would fly from Washington to his home in Burlington, Vt., where he would "begin holding conversations with supporters to get input and assess the path forward for our campaign."

One ally whom Sanders’ campaign reached out to Tuesday was Scott Slawson, president of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America Local 506, which has worked closely with the campaign. Slawson spoke at Sanders’ kickoff rally last March, and Sanders talked about his union members at a CNN town hall. He argued Sanders should stay in the race.

“There’s still a lot of states that got to weigh in. I think you got to do your due diligence and stay in till the end at this point,” he said. “I know that he’s got a pretty big following in Pennsylvania. There’s a lot of delegates still hanging out there.”

Even so, Sanders’ nosedive has led to intense questioning from the media about the future of his campaign, culminating in an inaccurate report on Axios that said he was suspending it. And the wall of pressure from centrist Democrats to abandon his bid for the White House has only intensified after his losses Tuesday. Both factors are likely to aggravate Sanders, who has long brawled with moderates and the news media.

“This campaign’s over. He needs to acknowledge that and be gracious about it,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way. “Not only for party unity, which is up to him, but just for the sake of humanity, it would be better for him to wrap this up.”

As he weighs his options, many of Sanders’ aides and allies are urging him to press forward, even if it is nearly impossible to win the nomination at this point. They see a benefit for him in trying to push Joe Biden to the left and continuing to grow the progressive movement.

“The campaign is so useful for building lists, leadership and organizational infrastructure that I think it’d be a big blow for the left if he dropped out any time before the convention,” a Sanders aide said.

David Segal, executive director of the progressive group Demand Progress, co-wrote a Wednesday op-ed that argued Sanders should not drop out. He said he was speaking for himself and not the organization.

“The alternative is an intentional, monthslong process where Bernie and Biden actually come to a deeper consensus and unity around a set of issues and especially around personnel,” he told POLITICO. “It’s important that you actually have a coming-together that feels more real than the last one in 2016.”

Charles Chamberlain, chairman of the progressive political action committee Democracy for America, said that while Sanders’ path to the nomination is “significantly steeper” after Tuesday, “the reality is this is a contest that has changed overnight repeatedly throughout the entire primary, and no one really knows what’s going to happen moving forward.”

Sanders, he said, had time to figure out his next steps: “The next contest isn’t for weeks, so I think we’ve got a lot of time.”

Sanders’ staffers did not provide a time frame on when he would make his decision. Mike Casca, Sanders’ communications director, said “his head really is in the coronavirus response.”

Sanders’ concern with the pandemic sweeping the world was evident on Wednesday, when he snapped at a reporter who asked about timing on his decision. “I’m dealing with a f---ing global crisis,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju . "Right now, I'm trying to do my best to make sure that we don't have an economic meltdown and that people don't die. Is that enough for you to keep me busy for today?"

On Wednesday, Sanders’ campaign canceled all digital ads, including online fundraising spots he launched just on Tuesday. Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ senior adviser, insisted that they pulled the ads because it is unclear when the next primaries will be held as states postpone elections because of the coronavirus.

“We make ad spending decisions based on many criteria,” he said. “One of the most important is when the election in a state is happening because advertising is most effective closer to Election Day. Primary dates are all moving back and our ad spending reflects that.”

Other presidential candidates who have pulled their advertising and said they were reevaluating their campaigns have often withdrawn within hours. But at least one hasn’t followed that path: Sanders.

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In April 2016, his senior strategist, Tad Devine, said Sanders was reassessing his campaign after a string of losses to Hillary Clinton made it virtually impossible for him to win the nomination. A day later, his campaign announced that it was laying off hundreds of staff and zeroing in on winning delegate-rich California.

This year, Sanders does not have California to look forward to after he won the Golden State on Super Tuesday. But his aides have thought he would have a good chance in New York, which casts ballots on April 28 and already has Sanders staff. As a son of Brooklyn, the state also holds an emotional significance for him.

But 2020 and 2016 are different in important ways. Sanders personally likes Biden and badly wants to defeat Trump. Because of the coronavirus epidemic, Sanders also cannot hold the large rallies that project excitement and energy, and that he personally enjoys.

While the result on Tuesday further deflated Sanders’ supporters, progressives surveying the map nevertheless found one major sign of progress in their movement.

As Sanders was getting shellacked in Illinois, incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski, a Democrat known for his opposition to abortion rights and Obamacare, was felled by Marie Newman, a progressive who supports Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Unlike Sanders, Newman was able to unite left-wing activists like the Justice Democrats and more traditional liberal groups such as EMILY’s List. She also carried Sanders’ endorsement.

“This is now the third incumbent that has been beaten by a Justice Democrats progressive in the last cycle and a half,” said Rebecca Katz, a progressive consultant who advised Cynthia Nixon in her primary campaign against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2018. “It’s a big win, and it also shows what happens when the left comes together.”

