Sanders, who’s coming off a victory in the OR primary and a close loss to Clinton in Kentucky, is hopeful that a victory in California’s June 7 primary election will strengthen his position in this summer’s Democratic convention.
Advertisement
Sanders supporters loudly protested both during and after the convention, where Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton officially claimed a 20-15 delegate advantage.
And despite the record 1.2 million voters who turned out for the primary, the largest chunk of Oregon’s electorate, Democrats, had a smaller turnout than they did in the 2008 presidential primary.
He added, “in a closed primary in Kentucky, where independents can not vote, we got half of the delegates in the state”.
“We just won OR, and we’re going to win California”, Sanders told thousands of supporters in Carson, California as he predicted victory in the nation’s largest state, which votes on June 7.
Lange says she wants Bernie Sanders to apologize for the violent behavior of his supporters.
The 55 pledged delegates will be allocated for either Clinton or Sanders and it could be an nearly even split.
Democrats displayed new signs that it could have trouble uniting around Mrs Clinton’s candidacy as Mr Sanders vowed to press on until the end of the primary calendar in mid-June.
Currently, Hillary Clinton is leading the race, with 2,291 delegates, needing less than 100 in order to be officially nominated. “Sanders, by ignoring the regular procedure and ramming through what they wanted to do”, he said.
Since the weekend, Sanders and his staff have condemned violence and harassment on behalf of his campaign, but have also implied that the Democratic Party establishment’s management of the electoral process was in part responsible for the outburst, criticizing the state’s party leadership for “prevent [ing] a fair and transparent process from taking place”, according to a statement released Tuesday.
Some Bernie Sanders supporters believe they should have won at the state convention because they won more delegates at the county conventions.
But neither candidate necessarily walked away with the impressive landslides some were anticipating, especially for the Vermont senator in a state that’s self-declared Bernie Sanders country.
Sanders hasn’t made it clear at what point he might wind down his campaign, but Merkley said the process of reconciliation shouldn’t wait for the convention.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to the battleground state of OH, where the vice-president delivered remarks on the economy, Biden said “there’s no fundamental split in the Democratic party”. “I’m asking the DNC, given that, to do everything you can to make this an absolutely fair convention”.
The Sanders campaign has not returned a request for comment.
Clinton campaigned in Kentucky on Sunday and Monday in an effort to break up Sanders’ momentum after his recent victories in IN and West Virginia. The result: Clinton should receive 55 delegates, while Sanders gets a little under 50.
The worst case scenario would be for Clinton to limp into the party convention, and exit with the nomination as bruised as she walked in, with no consensus backing her up heading toward November.
Advertisement
The Nevada state party has filed a formal complaint to the Democratic National Committee about the failure of the Sanders campaign to control its own supporters. California has 475 pledged delegates. That doesn’t mean he should drop out as many of Clinton’s supporters are suggesting.
