Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders conceded the Missouri primary to his opponent Hillary Clinton on Thursday, declining to pursue a recount of the very close vote.
Sanders told the Associated Press that he would “prefer to save the taxpayers of Missouri some money,” even though Clinton led by less than one half of one percent in the vote count — 1,531 votes, to be precise — which under state law entitles the losing candidate to a recount.
Because the Democratic primary allocates delegates proportionally, Sanders still takes about half of the state’s 71 pledged delegates, though Clinton’s narrow victory affords her two extra delegates for winning the state overall.
With Missouri now solidly in the bag, Clinton has officially won all five of Tuesday’s primary contests. Sanders’s virtually unprecedented upset in last week’s Michigan primary led his supporters to hope for similar surprises in other midwestern states, but Clinton’s wins in Illinois and Ohio largely quashed those hopes.
