How Bernie Sanders' Strategy Will Evolve Going Forward
— -- Bernie Sanders stood unwavering and a little audacious at his first rally in Indiana today.
Despite losing an additional four states on the east coast the night before, which rendered his chances of winning the nomination nearly mathematically impossible, the senator said he believed he would still win the majority of the pledged delegates and was staying in the race to win it.
“So that there is no confusion, we are in this campaign to win and become the Democratic nominee,” he said speaking to a packed room at Purdue University. In a statement released overnight after the final results landed, Sanders notably did not say whether he still believed he could make up Hillary Clinton's lead in pledged delegates, which some interpreted as a near concession on his part.
After Clinton’s latest victories, Sanders would need to win each of the remaining states by 35 points, or 65 percent of the remaining pledged delegates to take the lead on that front. Considering the number of superdelegates who have already pledged their support to Clinton, the former Secretary of State now would only need to win 20 percent of the remaining delegates to reach the threshold for the nomination.
Sanders briefly acknowledged that he was losing the race, but essentially posited that he was hoping for a miracle.
“I am very good in arithmetic and I can count delegates and we are behind today but you know what? Unusual things happen in politics,” he continued at his rally. "And with your help we are going to win the pledged delegates."
Sanders' Strategy Moving Forward
A major part of Sanders’ strategy now seems to be appealing to those superdelegates as well, who do not technically vote until the convention and will likely be the ones to officially put either candidate over the edge. There has been little evidence so far that many party elites are considering switching their allegiances at this late stage. Still, the senator made his pitch today, citing the excitement around his campaign, the large crowds he draws, and how well he does with independents as reasons he is better positioned to represent the Democratic Party.
Sanders added that even if he did not win, his team would fight through the end and try to win to as many delegates as possible in order to put pressure on the party and Clinton.
“We intend to win every delegate that we can so that we when we go to Philadelphia in July we will have the votes to put together the strongest progressive agenda that any political party has ever seen,” he said. In his statement late Tuesday, Sanders specifically listed a $15 dollar minimum wage, the end of hydraulic fracking and universal health care as key components of that platform.
One of the senator's grassroots backers, Democracy for America, echoed Sanders’ firm stance that the onus was on Clinton to unite the party under a more progressive agenda, saying in a statement that the question was “whether the Democratic establishment [was] going to bring our party together by embracing our fight for a political revolution or tell us to sit down, shut up and fall in line.”
