Sanders Vows to Fight Despite Clinton Becoming Presumptive Nominee
Clinton has obtained requisite number of delegates needed to get the nomination.
— -- San Francisco, CA -- Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is vowing to continue his fight for the Democratic Party’s nomination, despite former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton obtaining the requisite number of delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for president, according to a new count from the Associated Press earlier today.
Standing with the Golden Gate Bridge dramatically breaking through the fog behind him, on the eve of the primary in the Golden State, Sanders drew differences between his policy proposals and those of Clinton's and highlighted the strengths of his campaign, including his small-dollar donations, while criticizing Clinton for her Super PAC money.
"Tomorrow in the most important primary in the whole Democratic nominating process. We are going to win here in California," Sanders said. Hundreds of delegates are at stake and Sanders has 1,570 (including 48 superdelegates), according to ABC News' latest estimates, compared with 2,383 (with 571 superdelegates) for Clinton.
Sanders walked on stage to "Bernie!" chants from the crowd of several thousand and appeared with several members of his family.
At one point during the event, Sanders' fans chanted "no more fracking" too, highlighting a key difference in opinion between Sanders and Clinton.
Sanders has promised for weeks to spend the summer working to flip party superdelegates, who do not technically vote until the Democratic National Convention in July, and Monday the senator said that much of his future strategy hinged on the results in California. During his final rally before voting in the state, Sanders again said that party officials should look at his standing in the polls against Donald Trump compared to Clinton.
Over the weekend, Sanders said that, in his view, the convention will be “contested" either way, since Clinton is relying on votes from those party officials to hit the necessary total.
Defending his decision to stay in the race, one of his most passionate surrogates, former Ohio Sen. Nina Turner, rallied the crowd with cheers to "fight on," and also promised to take his movement all the way to the convention. Speaking more broadly, musician Dave Matthews told the crowd that the senator and his campaign was just "the beginning."
Barring an overwhelming victory in California tomorrow that puts him in the lead in pledged delegates, it will be hard for Sanders to make a case to superdelegates, who so far have overwhelmingly shown no sign of switching allegiances. It would be unprecedented for them to overturn the popular vote, which Clinton still leads in as well.
"This campaign has been to me an extraordinary experience," Sanders continued during his evening rally. "As I look out as this country and see so many people who love this nation, but who know we can be so much more, it gives me enormous optimism about our future. When we began our campaign, our ideas were considered a fringe campaign and fringe ideas. That is not the case today."
Sanders is currently planning on hosting an election night rally in Los Angeles tomorrow night and then is slated to fly home to Burlington, Vermont Wednesday. His campaign has said he will be holding events in the District of Columbia ahead of its primary June 14.
Clinton said Monday that her campaign was focused on the six primaries that lay ahead Tuesday. She still has to be selected as the nominee at the upcoming convention.
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