Nearing the end of the primary season, US Senator Bernie Sanders on Saturday said that the Democratic presidential process would lead to a contested summer convention against Democratic US presidential frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton, pushing back against the likelihood that the former US secretary of state would soon declare victory.
Speaking to reporters three days before the California primary, Sanders showed few signs of surrender, vowing to take his bid to the Philadelphia convention next month.
He urged news organizations not to anoint Clinton as the presumptive nominee through a combination of pledged delegates and superdelegates.
“It is extremely unlikely that secretary Clinton will have the requisite number of pledged delegates to claim victory on Tuesday night,” Sanders said.
“I have heard reports that secretary Clinton has said it is all going to be over on Tuesday night. I have reports that the media, after the New Jersey results come in, are going to declare that it is all over. That simply is not accurate,” he added.
By nightfall, Sanders was rallying supporters outside the entrance to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where he spoke about his differences with Clinton on super political action committees, the federal minimum wage and the Iraq War.
“Hillary Clinton wants small, incremental changes. We want to transform this nation,” Sanders said as the coliseum’s flaming cauldron torch lit up the sky.
Sanders told reporters that by the end of the primaries on June 14, neither candidate would have enough pledged delegates to declare victory and would be dependent upon superdelegates to reach the magic number.
“In other words, the Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention,” he said.
Clinton leads Sanders among pledged delegates by a count of 1,769 to 1,501, an edge of 268 pledged delegates. A count of superdelegates showed Clinton leading 547 to 46. Clinton is 67 delegates short of clinching the nomination through the combination of the two and is poised to cross that threshold in the coming days.
Sanders wants Democrats to break with tradition. In 2008, then-Illinois senator Barack Obama clinched the nomination against Clinton through a mix of both types of delegates.
Superdelegates historically have backed the candidate who wins the most delegates from primaries and caucuses, a threshold Clinton is likely to cross this week.
Sanders is seeking a victory in California, New Jersey and four other contests tomorrow.
A win in the Golden State, where polls show a tight contest, would be an embarrassment for Clinton and embolden Sanders to aggressively lobby superdelegates to switch their support to him, saying he is the best candidate to take on presumptive Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Sanders has said he would work “day and night” to defeat Trump, whom he repeatedly assails as a divisive figure. Yet few expect Sanders to quickly follow the example set by Clinton, who campaigned extensively for Obama after suspending the roll call vote at the 2008 convention and later, became his secretary of state.
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