Superdelegates are Democratic Party insiders who can support the candidate of their choice, regardless of how their states vote.
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After multiple defeats, low voter turnout, and massive downsizing, the Sanders campaign is now playing every last card it can to scrape together as many delegates as possible.
The Vermont senator formally joined the Democratic Party a year ago, after serving decades in Congress as a self-identified democratic socialist.
Trailing significantly in the Democratic primaries, Bernie Sanders wants superdelegates to flip his way and is aiming for a contested national convention in July against front-runner Hillary Clinton. That includes pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates. But Clinton already has turned her attention to the general election.
At this stage of the campaign, Mr Sanders has no chance of reaching the 2,383 delegates needed to win, but the self-described Democratic socialist has vowed to continue his campaign. Ms Clinton leads him 2,165 to 1,357 when delegates and super delegates are combined.
The lone state that voted on Tuesday, Indiana provided a test of the continued potency of Sanders’ effort to maintain his political revolution as a force with which Clinton will need to wrestle.
“I thought that Hillary Clinton would win by a small margin in IN”, he said. The donations came from 118,000 donors making more than 127,000 donations, and more than 40 percent of donors to the Woman Card drive had not previously given to Clinton, her campaign said.
Democrats are closely watching the tone Sanders takes with Clinton, hoping he’ll rein in his attacks so as not to damage her for the general election.
Earlier this week that he was laying off hundreds of staffers after losses last month in NY and several East coast primaries.
The press release sent out on Sunday points out that April’s fundraising figures also surpassed the campaign’s average monthly total of $17 million. Four of those six states were won by Sanders.
Former President Bill Clinton drew boos and shouts from the crowd as he made a campaign stop in Logan, West Virginia, on his wife’s behalf, ahead of the state’s May 10 presidential primary.
It pointed out that his almost $26 million April haul topped Clinton’s $21 million in March. This months deficit means he won’t have as much cash to pour into California’s expensive media market. During an event at the Commonwealth Club of California, a Democrat asked him, “Do you believe some people are born gay?”
April’s fundraising numbers underscore the challenge for Sanders.
News of the decline in donations comes at a bad time for the Vermont senator, whose poor showing recently in NY and other northeastern states prompted GOP frontrunner Donald Trump to bluntly tell an audience in Indianapolis: “Bernie is gone”.
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Hillary Clinton dealt with other countries, too. But right now the goal is victory’.
