Win or lose, Bernie Sanders has already accelerated a major generational shift within the Democratic Party

Through Wisconsin, Cook calculates, Sanders has won about 6.65 million votes across 21 primaries, some 41 percent of all ballots cast. That means Sanders has captured a greater percentage of the total primary vote than such previous insurgents as Howard Dean in 2004 (6 percent), George McGovern in 1972 (25 percent), Jackson in 1988 (29 percent), Gary Hart in 1984 (36 percent), and Ted Kennedy in 1980 (37 percent). In actual primary votes, Sanders has already soared past Dean, McGovern, and Hart and is guaranteed to top Jackson (almost 6.7 million) and Kennedy (just under 7 million) after the April 19 New York primary alone. Measured by the share of available delegates he’s won (nearly two-fifths, including super delegates), Sanders also seems likely to outshine all these predecessors except McGovern, who captured a majority and the nomination. Only President Obama, in his 2008 primary victory, outperformed Sanders on all those fronts, and as a former keynoter at the national party convention who drew support from key party leaders, Obama doesn’t seem perfectly analogous.

These gains reflect Sanders’s advance from the beachhead on which he began the race. He started as the classic “wine track” candidate relying primarily on young people and white-collar “Volvo liberals.” But he’s competed with growing effectiveness for blue-collar whites, especially across the Midwest, which has allowed him to battle the front-runner to a draw among white voters overall. While Clinton has won among all white voters in nine of 10 Southern states with exit polls, he’s carried most whites in nine of 11 states outside the South. Sanders also has captured 10 of 13 caucuses.