Three takeaways: First, the result should provide a note of caution going forward for those who said Clinton won Sunday’s debate. The New York Times’s Noam Scheiber reported that the powerful United Auto Workers union “worked hard” for Sanders in Michigan in part because of Clinton’s misleading claim that Sanders “opposed the auto bailout.” Exit polls found that Sanders led by seven points among voters who decided less than a week before Election Day, and trailed by three points among voters who decided before then. Together, these suggest that Sanders actually more likely won Sunday’s debate.

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Second, Sanders showed that even cutting a little bit into Clinton’s big margin among non-white voters can make a big difference. Clinton still crushed the Vermont senator among black voters, but getting 31 percent of the African American vote, 10 to 20 points higher than what Sanders has scored in other states with significant numbers of black voters, was enough for Sanders to squeak out a victory. (The other recent contest where Sanders won a similar share of black voters? Oklahoma, which he also won.) That number opens the door much wider for him in big upcoming states like Ohio.

Last, but certainly not least, Sanders drew strength again from the young and those concerned about economic inequality and trade policies — voters that Clinton doesn’t have good answers for. These voters want to know why Clinton thinks simply tinkering with and building upon President Obama’s legacy is enough. Decades of wage stagnation, disappearing jobs and the majority of gains going to the wealthiest, as well as years of terrible job markets and crushing debt for young voters, suggest that broader systemic change is still required. Clinton wisely has not dismissed their concerns, but moving in a more populist direction — opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, for example — isn’t enough. (Indeed, Clinton’s flip on TPP implicitly proves to these voters that their instinct that free trade has played a part in their troubles is right.)

Sanders has made Clinton a better candidate by pushing her in a more populist direction, but she will need to do more in terms of actual policies to permanently win over young people and those who have struggled under the economic policies of both parties in recent decades. These Americans simply do not trust her at the moment to advocate for them against corporate interests. Luckily for Clinton, they probably will not vote for Trump in the fall (at least not in large enough numbers), but those voters — especially millennials — will only grow as a force, and Clinton and the Democratic Party will need them two and four years down the road.

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