Bernie Sanders Arizona Town Hall Rally Full Replay: Defiant Sanders Begins Comeback With Flagstaff Event

Bernie Sanders began his comeback from a tough Super Tuesday when he held a Town Hall rally that will stream live from Flagstaff, Arizona, on Thursday night. Arizona is the biggest prize of the three states that vote next Tuesday, March 22, with 85 delegates to split between the two Democratic candidates for president — and Sanders will need to win the lion’s share of them.

But with a sizable campaign war chest at his disposal — Sanders has raised more than $96 million — and a base of devoted, largely young supporters, Bernie Sanders says that he still believes he will win the party’s nomination with what would be one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of primary election campaigns.

Sanders — who turns 75 on September 8, meaning that he would be the oldest United States president ever elected to a first term — gets that effort underway Thursday, March 17, when he holds his “A Future To Believe In” rally, this one in Town Hall format, at Twin Arrows Navajo Casino and Resort in Flagstaff, Arizona.

The Bernie Sanders Town Hall rally is scheduled to get underway at 7 p.m., though doors will open at 5 p.m., local time in Arizona, where Daylight Savings Time is not in effect. That means the rally starts at 10 p.m. Eastern Time, and 7 p.m. Pacific.

Watch a full replay of the Bernie Sanders “A Future To Believe In” Town Hall rally in the video below.

Sanders last appeared in Arizona on Tuesday night, choosing to begin his campaign for next Tuesday’s Arizona primary early, rather than linger in one of the Super Tuesday voting states. Even though Sanders lost four of those five states — Illinois, Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina — and finished in a virtual tie in the fifth, Missouri, he delivered another in his series of crowd-pleasing speeches that night.

But none of the major TV cable networks broadcast the speech, though they did choose to carry an election night speech by Republican candidate Ted Cruz, who also failed to win any states on Tuesday.

All Three Networks Ignored Bernie Sanders’ Speech Tuesday Night, Promising Trump Would Be Speakin… https://t.co/knshQdGNkt

— chris84 caul (@CaulCmc49ers84) March 17, 2016

The whole Bernie Sanders Super Tuesday speech can be relived, however, in the following video.

What can Sanders supporters expect from the Thursday Town Hall rally in Flagstaff, about 145 miles north of Phoenix? According to the Sanders campaign, the self-described “democratic socialist” from Vermont “will discuss a wide range of issues, including getting big money out of politics, his plan to make public colleges and universities tuition-free, combating climate change and ensuring universal health care.”

Sanders will also certainly implore his followers to keep the faith, despite the fact that he trails Clinton by a significantly larger delegate margin than Clinton ever trailed then-Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primaries — and despite winning numerous primaries, Clinton was never able to catch Obama that year after falling behind early, due to the party’s system of allocating delegates proportionally.

With Sanders trailing Clinton by 323 delegates, that same proportional system makes the road ahead for the underdog an exceedingly steep one. Of the 2,072 delegates remaining, Sanders must win 1,244, roughly 60 percent.

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Sanders’ hopes will likely be buoyed by what appears to be a coming hot streak for him, that sees Sanders favored in six of the next eight contests, according to New York Times election analyst Nate Cohn, who predicts that Sanders can cut into Clinton’s lead by as many as 70 delegates over the next month.

After that, the outlook shifts back to favor Clinton. Sanders will need to keep winning, however, in large states filled with affluent voters and ethnically diverse voters — blocs that have so far favored Clinton — such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the biggest prize of all, on June 7, California.

Bernie Sanders will need to not only win but dominate those states, winning by about 10 percentage points on average, to close the gap with Hillary Clinton. He began to scale that mountain Thursday in Flagstaff, with his Arizona Town Hall rally.

[Photo by Ralph Freso/Getty Images]