News Analysis: Tuesday's primaries to move Clinton closer to Democratic nomination

Tuesday's spate of primaries is expected to move Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton ever closer to clinching the nomination, after rival Senator Bernie Sanders had surprised most analysts by beating Clinton in a number of states.

Primary contests are being held Tuesday in the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

"After today, Clinton will be very close to the delegates she needs for the nomination," Brookings Institution's senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua. "Most people will accept that she is going to be the nominee."

Analysts had earlier underestimated Sanders, not quite grasping the high level of Americans' bitterness toward Washington elites, such as Clinton, and the deep economic problems that Sanders' supporters are feeling.

Indeed, even seven years after the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, people are still feeling the sting of unemployment, underemployment and wage stagnation. While Washington's economy is booming and wages are high in the nation's capital, many people - especially young people - in the rest of the country continue to struggle, and Sanders' message of economic inequality resonates with them.

Despite Sanders' recent wins in a number of states, Clinton continues to rack up delegates, and is expected to get closer to the Democratic Party's nomination after Tuesday's votes.

Clinton has done well in the South and the northeast, and places there are large numbers of minority voters.

Indeed, African Americans comprise around half of the electorate in some Southern states, and that voting bloc has been loyal to both Hillary and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as the couple has been seen as fighting for African Americans over the last two decades.

While some Sanders's supporters had hoped that African Americans would shift toward supporting Sanders, that has not happened, and the crucial voting bloc has remained loyal to Clinton.

Sanders has done well in states that have a preponderance of white voters and young people, noted West.

While Clinton is highly likely to win her party's nomination, Sanders could continue his campaigning in a bid to use his influence to push Clinton to take up parts of his agenda. Still, Clinton will be cautious about which policies she will adopt.

"In the closing primaries, (Sanders) will seek to pin her down on programs to help working people. Since she is the presumptive nominee, (Clinton) will be cautious about adopting policies that are too expensive. She won't accept policies that would create problems for her in the fall," West said, speaking about the 2016 race for the White House this fall.

Millennials especially are supporting Sanders, as that group continues to feel the sting from the 2008 economic crisis, when the U.S. economy took a nosedive and sent the global economy reeling. Endit