(Reuters)
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) addresses International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) delegates at the IAFF Presidential Forum in Washington March 10, 2015.
Brooklyn — Supporters of Bernie Sanders are staying positive after Hillary Clinton won by nearly 16 points in the New York primary, further cementing her status as the Democratic party’s frontrunner.
"It's not over," Sanders supporter Maria Bolton-Joubert told Business Insider at a Brooklyn watch party put on by the Sanders campaign. The 34-year-old supporter traveled to New York from Orlando, Florida to canvas for the candidate.
"The momentum is here," she continued. "The mass media is now paying attention."
New York City Council Member Rafael Espinal of Brooklyn found positives in Sanders' performance on Tuesday.
"I think we did what we had to do, and it showed that Bernie Sanders is strong right here in our city," he told supporters following the announcement of Clinton's victory. "We're doing a lot better than Obama did when he ran here in this city" against Clinton in 2008.
But Sanders supporters were expecting a closer race between the two following a two-week stretch of heavy campaigning in the state, leading up to a contentious debate last Thursday in Brooklyn.
Sanders, a Vermont senator, underperformed his RealClearPolitics polling average in New York on Tuesday with roughly 94% of precincts reporting as of 11:30 p.m. EST, per The Associated Press.
Both Renata Głębocki, 23, and Dylan Kelly, 25, traveled from Orlando to New York to canvas for Sanders, expected their candidate to do much better in the Empire State.
"I think it will be close either way," Głębocki told Business Insider. "I'm hoping that he will win, but it will be close."
She later added that Sanders should stay in the race "no matter what happens" through the California primary in June.
Prior to the results being announced, Kelly listed several reasons why Sanders could lose on Tuesday.
"I'm very, very concerned of the votes getting purged from the Democratic Party in Brooklyn," Kelly said, referencing the reports of more than 125,000 Brooklyn voters being unable to vote due to a New York Board of Elections system error. "The all-around mess happening in precincts around the district. This accumulation of errors or debacles, it's frustrating. Bernie's clearly performed very well among New York voters. I think if it'd been an open primary, it would've been a blowout for us. But, by running as a Democrat he agreed to the rules."
Kelly suggested that a loss of less than five points would mark a successful night for Bernie. Per the AP's total as of 11:30 p.m. EST., Sanders trailed Clinton by more than 15%.