Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Sanders predicated that the remaining state contests will not produce the required 2,383 delegates for the Democratic frontrunner and that she “will need superdelegates to take her over the top at the convention in Philadelphia”. At the press conference, Sanders emphasized one part of this pitch: that the superdelegates in states he’s won should swing their support behind his campaign.
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Though Sanders later walked those comments back, Trump said he’s “going to use that”.
Still, it would be “an uphill climb” to win the nomination, Sanders said.
The dispute is over the Hillary Victory Fund, established by Clinton last summer and comprising her presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee and 32 state party committees. On May 5, it began to argue about the delegate math, making the case that the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination was actually 2,209, not 2,025, the figure that had been cited up until then-and that if neither campaign reached that new number, Clinton was prepared for a floor fight at the party’s convention. Right now, Clinton has commitments from an estimated 520 superdelegates to Sanders’ 39. Will Sanders “contest” a pledged majority of delegates for Clinton?
“I’d like to see the party pull together”, Trump said. Clinton, who is slowly starting to turn her focus to the general election, starts May with $30 million in the bank.
This brings us to the Sanders campaign’s latest “the dog ate my homework” excuse. That’s all but impossible Clinton would basically have to lose every remaining state with 20 percent or less of the vote. This is possible because in seven key states (plus Idaho if it matches Utah), Sanders leads in the RCP average by more than ten points, while Clinton leads by less.
To date, according to the Clinton campaign, Hillary for America has raised $213.5 million in primary funds and more than $46 million for the DNC and state parties.
Even if Mr. Sanders were to manage to flip every Clinton superdelegate in the 11 states on his tally sheet, and even if he were to win every uncommitted superdelegate in those states – both impossible scenarios – he would pick up only 77 superdelegates.
Sanders now has 1,318 delegates to Clinton’s 1,645 delegates; he also lags behind Clinton in super delegates – 30 to 530.
“The evidence is extremely clear that I would be the stronger candidate to defeat Trump or any other Republican”, Sanders said of the Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
Sen. Bernie Sanders insists that the Democratic convention will be a “contested contest”, though acknowledging it would be tough for him to get there.
Mr. Sanders’ take, raised nearly entirely online, fell about $20 million short of the $46 million he posted in March. “Shouldn’t those superdelegates take into consideration a totality of the circumstances?”
That narrative ended Monday, with findings that the Clinton campaign was misappropriating funds from these arrangements.
The lower haul also comes as Mr. Sanders is ramping up to compete against Ms. Clinton in California, where there are multiple media markets and the cost of television advertising is very expensive.
Yet Sanders says he is going to contest the nomination at the convention, no matter how far ahead Clinton is.
The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from May 1 to 3, 2016 with 301 New Jersey voters likely to vote in the Democratic presidential primary.
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But Clinton was determined to fight until the last votes had been cast.
