Bernie Sanders' supporters responded to his defeat with little more than a shrug. | AP Photo Bernie's allies: It's just a flesh wound

Bernie Sanders' momentum might have hit a wall Saturday in Nevada but his allies and supporters hardly noticed. They responded to his defeat with little more than a shrug, accompanied by optimism about his chances on Super Tuesday.

Their argument, boiled down: It's just a flesh wound. Sure, he lost Nevada but the Vermont senator surged from far back in the polls and nearly won. It wasn't a resounding defeat — and the entrance polls reported that Sanders actually won the Hispanic vote, a promising development.


"You got to remember when [Sanders] started this race he was 40 points down, Secretary Clinton's campaign was bragging about being 20 points ahead," said Neil Sroka, the communications director for Democracy for America, which has endorsed Sanders. "And so I think getting to where this campaign is at the moment is a good thing. I mean that shows growth, a continuation of momentum. Was it enough to completely upset this particular contest? No. But there seems to be continuing growth and strength in ways that are surprising everyone in kind of a stunning sort of way."

After the race was called for Clinton, Sanders' small-donor army remained energized, vowing to continue contributing to his campaign.

"I just dropped $50 in the bucket. Stay positive folks, the game is not over! GO BERNIE!," one supporter on a pro-Bernie Reddit thread wrote.

Another Reddit user quickly responded "Same. I was planning on dropping $50 either way."

The close Nevada results -- Sanders trailed 53 percent to 47 percent, with 90 percent of precincts reporting -- were a positive preview of the states where Sanders is expected to perform well on March 1, other Sanders supporters said,

"Today, it's clear that Bernie Sanders' campaign will be competitive in every single state. Just a few months ago, Sanders was trailing by 30 points in Nevada and the establishment was confident that today would prove Bernie could not broaden his appeal beyond white voters. Caucus entrance polls are showing that Bernie Sanders won among Latino voters today," Working Families Party National Director Dan Cantor said in a statement after the race was called for Clinton. "Every week, people hear more about Bernie Sanders, and the more they hear, the more they like him. That's because Sanders' campaign is not about one unlikely candidate, but about all of us who believe that we must rise to the challenges of our times, from economic inequality to structural racism to climate change. We won't shy away."

Sanders himself set the tone of the post-caucus response in his concession speech, asserting that he's far from done and that it will all pay off on March 1.

“We are bringing working people and young people in to the political process in a way we have not seen for a very long time. in a short while I'll be on a plane to South Carolina and then we're going to be competing in 11 states all across this country on Super Tuesday," Sanders said Saturday. "And I believe that on Super Tuesday we have got an excellent chance to win many of those states.”

The campaign and his supporters are especially optimistic about their chances in caucus states like Colorado and Minnesota.

"I think it's encouraging, I mean the Hillary camp went into this thinking that he was going to be anointed to the position and her numbers have dropped quite significantly," Colorado state Rep. Joe Salazar, who endorsed Sanders on Saturday night, told POLITICO. "Nevada was going to be a huge a test for her. She barely eked out a win in Iowa. And now she's barely eked out a win in Nevada. She lost the Latino vote. Obviously, Sen. Sanders did a hell of a job in New Hampshire. South Carolina will be a tough test of course. We've all expected that. But I think that come Super Tuesday I just don't think the Hillary camp will be as gleeful as they would be on Super Tuesday."

Sanders supporters shrugged off the prospect of another loss in South Carolina, where he's currently trailing by a wide margin in the polls.

"A couple weeks ago everyone was saying Nevada was tailor-made for Secretary Clinton. It's not surprising for her to do well here. And if Nevada is tailor-made, South Carolina is even more so -- largely made up of conservative Democrats and it's a place you'd expect that if she doesn't deliver a Bernie Sanders-style over 22 point win, that for me, would be shocking," Sroka added. "She should be doing phenomenally and we should expect a New Hampshire-style win from her in that state. And frankly that's what my expectations are going into that race, and the reality after that is three days after that is Super Tuesday. You have tons of states voting and I think there's a lot of growth opportunities all across the country."

Bill Hyers, the former chief strategist for former Gov. Martin O'Malley's late presidential campaign, said there's some cause for the optimism from Sanders and his supporters, but there's still a steep climb ahead.

"They are right to some extent, it was a state she won in 08 and was supposed to have a 25-point lead in," Hyers said. "But it's getting to the point where moral victories start mattering less. He needs to start winning some states, and figuring out his path to the nomination."

