By Wednesday, Sanders sought to regain his footing from primary election defeats in several key states as his campaign advisers looked to address his glaring inability to win African Americans and traditional Democrats.

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Hours after Joe Biden racked up wins in at least 10 of the 14 Super Tuesday states, Sanders took sharp aim at the former vice president's record, a sign of what aides said would be a more confrontational posture in the coming weeks. Sanders also unveiled a pair of television commercials critical of Biden's record on Social Security and trade in states voting later this month.

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"Joe and I have a very different vision for the future of this country, and Joe and I are running very different campaigns," Sanders said. "My hope is that in the coming months, we will be able to debate and discuss the very significant differences that we have."

Sanders's reset attempt, coming less than a week before another critical set of primaries, reflected a divide among some of his supporters about how to proceed.

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In some parts of the Sanders orbit, there have been private discussions about how to reassure Democrats that Sanders — a democratic socialist who frequently lambastes the party establishment — is an ally of the party.

The campaign released an ad featuring an audio clip of former president Barack Obama praising Sanders, a clear attempt to undercut the benefit that has accrued to Biden, particularly among black voters, as the loyal lieutenant to the country's first African American president.

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The flurry of activity amounted to the clearest acknowledgment yet that the coalition Sanders has built — which is composed largely of young people, liberals, working-class voters and Latino voters — has failed to expand since Sanders's upstart 2016 bid, all as the rest of the party has coalesced behind Biden.

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The Tuesday results, in which Sanders led in California while winning Colorado, Utah and Vermont, offered a reminder that he retains a forceful position in the party — win or lose the nomination — with support from a quarter to a third of the base.

But much of his team's focus Wednesday was on the need for improvement.

Exit polls showed that the struggles Sanders experienced among black voters four years ago against Clinton were largely unchanged. Black voters boosted Biden across Southern states on Super Tuesday, with exit polling showing that he won the votes of roughly 7 in 10 black voters in Virginia and Alabama, and did nearly as well in North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, getting roughly 60 percent of the black vote.

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Sanders's push to broaden the electorate with scores of new voters rallying behind him hasn't been realized. And he has struggled to persuade voters that a leftist political revolution is the best way to beat President Trump.

Now, Sanders is confronting a radically different political landscape from 11 days ago, when he was flying high after a decisive win in Nevada seemed to put him in the driver's seat in the Democratic race. Divisions in the moderate wing of the party that enabled him to succeed with a limited, if loyal, base have been resolved.

On Wednesday, Sanders appeared frustrated by the decision by former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg — who ended his campaign after a disappointing showing — and others to end their campaigns and line up behind Biden.

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"How do we stop Bernie Sanders?" the senator from Vermont said. "What you do is you get candidates out of the race to rally around Joe Biden."

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Sanders campaign officials were hopeful that as more votes were tallied in California — Tuesday's biggest prize — the delegate advantage Biden had built would shrink or disappear entirely. Even if it does, though, the path ahead for Sanders is a treacherous one, with some states that present opportunities but many others that seem more favorable to Biden.

Campaign officials are also eyeing Michigan, a populous state where Sanders defeated Clinton in 2016. But Florida, another ­delegate-rich state where many Democrats were angered by Sanders's recent comments praising Fidel Castro, is likely to be much tougher.

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Mississippi, which holds its primary next week, could be another difficult contest for Sanders due to the state's high concentration of black voters.

Sanders planned to travel Friday to Jackson, Miss., to deliver a speech at a civil rights museum, although his aides declined to say what he would talk about.

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His struggles were apparent in the closing days of the South Carolina primary, when he drew mostly white crowds.

Chokwe Lumumba, the African American mayor of Jackson, Miss., where Sanders will be Friday, spent time in South Carolina campaigning for Sanders last week. He recalled meeting a young African American man who told him, "My student loans are killing me."

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"I asked who he was voting for, and he said Joe Biden," recalled Lumumba. "I said, 'I don't know what his policy is around your student loans, but I know where Bernie Sanders is.' "

Some close Sanders allies believe the distance between the Sanders movement and the party have caused broader issues, especially when Biden is portraying himself as a unifier. Now, some are trying to bridge that gap in hopes of mending old wounds and preventing new ones.

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"Our campaign is deeply proud of the Democratic Party and contributions to America," said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a national co-chair of the Sanders campaign. "We are open to listening and earning the trust of every Democrat from every ideological spectrum to earn the right to lead this extraordinary party."

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Some Sanders allies believe the problem is deeper than party identity.

As Sanders spoke in Vermont on Wednesday afternoon, a handful of his prominent supporters quietly connected by phone and text message, according to three Democrats familiar with those discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations.

In these discussions, some debated whether Sanders's anti-

establishment message was enough. "We've got to be ready for when the party gets cold feet on Biden and looks to us," one of the Democrats said. "We can't just keep running the same playbook again and again."

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A second Democrat involved said there are plans to reach out to supporters of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in key states, should she drop out, but those efforts are not being directed by Sanders's inner circle since they are busy with primary contests, ads and travel.

The second Democrat added that there are some leading liberals in Sanders's orbit who would like to see "less Michael Moore and the Squad" on the campaign trail.

Warren's intentions were not clear on Wednesday, and her continued presence in the race is hurting Sanders, some of his allies privately acknowledged. As the senator from Massachusetts hunkered down to consider her future after failing to gain traction anywhere on Tuesday, she and Sanders spoke, according to the senator from Vermont.

Sanders said it was important to "respect the time and the space that she needs to make her decision."

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One bright spot for Sanders on Tuesday was California, where he was leading and performed well among Latino voters.

Analilia Mejia, Sanders's political director, said the campaign sought to capitalize early on what it saw as a chance to make inroads with Latino voters by immersing itself in Hispanic communities through intimate meetings, the hiring of staff who knew local areas best and by encouraging young Latinos to persuade their parents to consider supporting Sanders.

"What people see outwardly," Mejia said, is "a rally at a particular location or state or city. What isn't always apparent is we build clutches with leaders and communities before and after those rallies."