Bernie Sanders wins Michigan primary in big upset

Bernie Sanders just pulled off a big come-from-behind victory in Michigan, a state that even Sanders' team thought he was going to lose heading into election night.

"This has been a fantastic night in Michigan. We’re very, very grateful," Sanders declared in a hastily arranged press briefing, hours after he'd already delivered his speech for the night. 

"What tonight means is that the Bernie Sanders campaign, the people’s revolution that we are talking about, the political revolution we are talking about is strong in every part of the country and frankly we believe that our strongest areas are yet to happen."

Hillary Clinton had been expected to win Michigan's primary, and led Sanders by double digits in polls leading up to Tuesday's contest. Both Clinton and Sanders advisers believed she was going to win the state heading into Tuesday night, though both sides thought the race was going to be much closer than public polling suggested.

"We thought we were behind, that she had a real advantage," Sanders senior strategist Tad Devine told Mashable late Tuesday night, admitting he was surprised by the results. "We were behind in the public polling and in our own polls."

Sanders' 50%-48% win shows that he is far from dead in the race — at a time when the primary calendar turns to a string of more favorable states. Sanders' campaign is eyeing opportunities next week in Ohio, which demographically and culturally is very similar to Michigan, as well as Illinois and Missouri.

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How Sanders won is key as well. 

While Sanders once again lost African American voters to Clinton in Michigan, exit polls suggest he made some inroads with a group that has stubbornly stuck with his opponent through the early stages of the campaign. He won roughly one third of the black vote in the state — still not great, but better than he's done elsewhere. And he continued to run up big margins with young voters and white males.

The results show that Sanders' attacks on Clinton's Wall Street ties and her past support of some big trade deals cut deep in the industrial Midwest. That will matter next week, and down the line.

They also indicate that Clinton's last-minute accusations that Sanders had opposed the auto bailout because he'd voted against bailing out Wall Street — a misleading argument at best — may have backfired.

Clinton repeated that attack during her Tuesday night speech, one that was notably early in a sign she knew she'd underperformed in Michigan. She also leaned hard into a message aimed at blue-collar workers worried about manufacturing jobs.

"Don’t let anybody tell you we can’t make it in America anymore. We can, we are and we will," she said.

It's not all doom and gloom for Clinton, however. 

Clinton allies privately stressed that she'd added to her delegate lead Tuesday night. She posted a dominant victory in Mississippi, winning 80% of the vote. That, and a virtual tie in Michigan, means she and Sanders will split the state's delegates evenly. 

She actually comes out ahead in the delegate math, but Sanders has emerged with the wind at his back after his surprising win.

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