SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) — Bernie Sanders, on Monday (June 6) vowed to keep up the fight in what has been a protracted and increasingly antagonized primary race that has exposed deep rifts between the left-wing and the more centrist of the Democratic Party.
His rival Hillary Clinton has reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination, according to tallies by two U.S. media outlets, the day before six states were set to vote in nominating contests.
“What they should not be doing is lumping pledged delegates, i.e. real delegates, with super with super delegates who may or may not change their mind, but who do not vote until July 25th. So everybody knows exactly how all the superdelegates are going to vote on July 25th, that’s great for them but I don’t know that,” Sanders said.
“Well it’s going to be very difficult, I’m not here to deny that for a second, but the case we’re going to make for the superdelegates is everybody at the Democratic National Convention is going to want to defeat Donald Trump for good reasons, he is a disaster and must not become president of the United States. Well you know what, according to every national poll that I have seen and according to virtually every state poll that I have seen Bernie Sanders is a much stronger candidate against Donald Trump than is Hillary Clinton,” he added.
While most delegates are awarded by popular votes in state-by-state elections, superdelegates largely consist of party leaders and elected senators, members of Congress and governors, and can change their mind at any time.
For that reason, the Democratic National Committee has echoed the Sanders campaign, saying the superdelegates should not be counted until they vote at the convention in Philadelphia.
The Democratic Party holds its convention in Philadelphia in July to formally choose its nominee for the Nov. 8 election against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.