Bernie Sanders Vows To ‘Fight All the Way’ To Democratic Party Convention
Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has vowed to stay in the race for the Democratic nomination until the party’s convention this summer.
Appearing on Good Morning America Tuesday, the Vermont Senator said that he would continue to contest Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid even if she secures enough delegates to win the nomination.
Despite posting an impressive seven-state winning streak at the end of March, Sanders is expected to lose all five of this week’s contests in New England.
Pollsters at RealClearPolitics are forecasting party front-runner Hillary Clinton to come out on top of Sanders by 24 points in Maryland, 16 points in Pennsylvania, and seven points in Delaware. Sanders is faring better in the polls in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Yet analysts are still predicting a clean sweep for Clinton on Tuesday night.
According to Sanders, those predicted losses will not be enough to deter voters.
“You know when we began this campaign, we were 60 points behind Hillary Clinton,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Tuesday. “So we’re feeling good. We’ve won 16 states already, I think we’ve got a chance to win some more today. And then it’s out west, where we have a very good chance to win the largest state in this country, California.”
California’s Democratic presidential primary has already proven a difficult battleground for both Sanders and Clinton.
A poll conducted last week by CBS News/YouGov gave Clinton a 12-point lead over Sanders in the run-up to the June 7 contest. Yet results have varied wildly between surveys. A recent FOX News poll claimed Clinton led Sanders by just two points in California.
As America’s most heavily populated state, analysts say a win in California would ultimately seal the deal for Hillary Clinton in the race to be named this year’s party nominee. According to reports, 546 delegates stand to be won in the state’s primary.
At present, Clinton is sitting comfortably in the lead with 1,944 delegates to her name – versus 1,428 being claimed for Sanders. A grand total of at least 2,382 delegates will be needed in order to secure the nomination on July 25.
Yet when asked if he would bow out of the presidential race following a loss in California, Sanders said on Tuesday that he planned to “fight all the way” to July’s party convention in Philadelphia.
“We’re going to fight all the way to the Philadelphia convention and we’re going to win as many delegates as we can, and we believe we do have a path toward victory,” he said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZA2QmrB_aY
Sanders also added that there are plenty of primary contests taking place in between Tuesday’s battle for New England and June’s deciding vote in California.
“We are going to fight through California and then we see what happens,” he said. “We are here today competing in five states, we have 10 more states to go after this, and we’re going to do the best that we can to bring our message that, in fact, it is too late for establishment politics and economics.”
Sanders is currently within striking distance of Hillary Clinton in next week’s Indiana primary, where pollsters place Clinton just four points ahead of the Vermont Senator.
But Sanders is expected to post a huge win when West Virginia Democrats go to the polls the following week. One survey by Metro News has given Sanders a whopping 28-point lead over Clinton in the state’s May 10 contest.
Nationwide, Sanders is roughly sitting neck-and-neck with Clinton. One poll published this week by USA Today/Suffolk University slashed Clinton’s lead over Sanders to just five points.
Sanders was also keen to point out on Tuesday that multiple polls on a hypothetical match-up between him and Donald Trump in the general election proved his campaign was still looking extremely competitive in the run-up to November.
“The election is not over yet,” he said.
[Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images]
