Where Are The Other 158 Delegates?

Hillary Clinton may have claimed victory over rival Bernie Sanders in the long and hard-fought Democratic primary Tuesday night, but the race isn't technically over for the Democrats quite yet. A quick look at the delegate count shows that there are still a few have not been awarded to either candidate — 158, to be precise. Where are the other 158 Democratic delegates? They haven't been counted yet, but most of them will be soon.

First, even though Tuesday night was pretty universally declared the last round of primaries, there is still one left. Washington, D.C. Democrats vote on Tuesday, June 14, which counts for 20 of the remaining delegates. Clinton is expected to take the majority of those delegates, which is unsurprising, considering D.C. is comprised mostly of political insiders and minority voters, both of which are demographics Clinton largely controls. Clinton and Sanders were nearly tied at the time of the last polls, but that could change as Sanders' chances at the nomination have faded with recent events.

Another large portion of the remaining delegates will be apportioned this week at the Kentucky State Delegate Convention. Clinton and Sanders split last month's primary nearly down the middle, coming within one percentage point of one another. The primary gave 28 delegates to Clinton and 27 to Sanders. However, those delegates won't be formally rewarded until after this week's convention. The state's 55 delegates could change their votes at the national convention, but it's pretty unlikely to happen.

So that's 75 delegates between D.C. and Kentucky. What about the other 83? You guessed it — they're the all-important superdelegates. There are still a few who haven't endorsed a candidate yet, and they may not until the vote at the Democratic National Convention in July. Ostensibly, those superdelegates were closet Sanders supporters who were waiting for the nomination to be out of their hands so that they didn't have to make a potentially controversial choice. If that's the case, a flood of superdelegates could come out of the woodwork to endorse Clinton before the convention, or they could now choose to endorse Sanders, since the pressure is off and they can't be responsible for swinging the nomination anyway. In any case, they comprise the remaining delegates left to be rewarded, and complete the delegates who will vote in the first ballot in July.

Don't get too excited, Bernie fans. This isn't enough to push him over the edge and give him the nomination. However, the remaining voters, and the remaining superdelegates, do have the opportunity to send a strong message to the DNC about the future they want for the party. The closer Sanders comes to matching Clinton's delegate count, the further leverage he and the progressive wing of the party has to push the Democrats in their preferred direction.