With 4 wins, Hillary Clinton closes in on magic number

Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters at the Philadelphia Convention Center after wins in Pennsylvania and three other states. Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters at the Philadelphia Convention Center after wins in Pennsylvania and three other states. Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close With 4 wins, Hillary Clinton closes in on magic number 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Hillary Clinton rolled to victory in four Northeastern states Tuesday, virtually guaranteeing she will have the delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination on the first ballot.

The former secretary of state scored overwhelming wins in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware and finished on top in a tight battle with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Connecticut. Sanders won the Rhode Island primary, the only one Tuesday in which independent voters were allowed to cast ballots.

Her victories, combined with the promised support of more than 500 officially uncommitted “superdelegates,” brought Clinton about 90 percent of the way to the 2,383 needed for the nomination, according to figures gathered by the Associated Press. She is now fewer than 250 delegates short of that goal.

With loudspeakers blaring out “Eye of the Tiger,” Clinton took the podium in front of a screaming crowd at her Philadelphia headquarters a little more than an hour after the polls closed.

“With your help, we are going to come back to Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention with the most votes and the most pledged delegates,” Clinton declared. “And we will unify our party to win this election and build an America where we can all rise together, an America where we lift each other up instead of tearing each other down.”

Sanders downplays results

The results were no surprise. The polls had predicted a strong showing for the Democratic front-runner, and Sanders didn’t even stick around to hear the numbers, spending the day instead campaigning in West Virginia, which votes May 10.

Speaking at a hall packed with more than 6,000 supporters in Huntington, W.Va., Sanders didn’t mention Tuesday’s voting, instead pointing out his success among independent voters casting ballots in previous Democratic primaries and his better-than-Clinton’s poll numbers against the prospective GOP candidates.

That support from outside the Democratic Party will be absolutely necessary in November, he said, “a point that I hope the delegates to the Democratic convention fully understand.”

In a statement the Sanders campaign released late Tuesday, he congratulated Clinton on her victory and said that “we are in this race until the last vote is cast.”

Missing from that statement, though, was any suggestion that Sanders could actually win the nomination.

“The people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be,” Sanders said in the statement. “That is why this campaign is going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform.”

If, as Sanders acknowledged Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he had only a “narrow path to victory,” Clinton’s overpowering performance Tuesday shut down that path for good.

Clinton’s victory speech

Her victory speech focused on the general election, with only a brief shout-out to Sanders and a call for unity in November.

Clinton “has been talking that way for a couple of weeks, but now she’s pivoted to the general election and much more toward (Republican front-runner Donald) Trump,” who swept the GOP primaries Tuesday, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst who is a professor at the University of Southern California.

Time after time in her victory speech, Clinton shouted out “we Democrats agree” to preface statements about differences with the GOP on hot-button topics like climate change, income inequality, affordable health care and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

Clinton called out Trump by name, saying he had accused her of playing “quote, the woman card.”

“Well, if fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the women card, then deal me in,” she said.

But while Clinton can argue that “we have to stand together” in November, that’s largely up to Sanders and his supporters, Jeffe said.

Clinton “won’t call on Sanders to get out of the race ... since he sees no reason to exit the stage,” she said. “What she will keep going though is reminding people of 2008, when after she lost to (Barack) Obama, no one was a stronger supporter than she was.”

Sanders is likely to disappear from Clinton’s future speeches, except as part of a unity plea, Jeffe added.

While Sanders said in his Tuesday night statement that he looks “forward to issue-oriented campaigns in the 14 contests to come,” he didn’t pledge to play nice. He told the AP that he has no plans to stop his attacks on Clinton and her policies.

“Trust me, the Republicans have a very good research team,” he said. “They will go and take on Clinton in a way I have chosen not to, in areas I have chosen not to go.”

No sign of conceding

There is no suggestion that Sanders will go away quietly and little reason for him to do so, said Michael Smerconish, a CNN commentator.

“Normally, candidates get out when the money dries up and the crowds go away,” he said. “That’s not happening.”

CNN exit polls Tuesday showed that little has changed in Clinton’s road map to victory. Once again, she rolled out huge margins among women and nonwhite voters, while losing the youngest voters to Sanders.

In Maryland, for example, women made up 61 percent of the voters and Clinton won them, 67 percent to 31 percent. Among nonwhite voters, who were 57 percent of those casting ballots, she had a 73 percent to 25 percent margin.

But the 74-year-old Sanders continued to bring young, progressive voters flocking to his banner. He collected the support of 71 percent of the voters under 30 in Maryland, 84 percent in Connecticut and 85 percent in Pennsylvania, showing again just how important it will be to persuade those young people to stay with the Democrats in the fall.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth