Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:00 pm
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders is using his victory in Indiana to argue that the Democratic primary is not over.
In a statement, Sen. Sanders said:
I want to thank the people of Indiana for the great upset victory that they gave us tonight. This is the 18th state that we have won, and we expect more victories in the weeks to come.
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The Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over. They’re wrong. Maybe it’s over for the insiders and the party establishment, but the voters in Indiana had a different idea. The campaign wasn’t over for them. It isn’t over for the voters in West Virginia. It isn’t over for Democrats in Oregon, New Jersey and Kentucky. It isn’t over for voters in California and all the other states with contests still to come.
We understand that we have an uphill climb to victory but we have been fighting uphill from the first day of this campaign. We are in this campaign to win and we’re going to fight until the last vote is cast. There is nothing I would like more than to take on and defeat Donald Trump, someone who must never become president of this country.
The voters in the remaining contests deserve a chance to compare my record and Hillary Clinton’s record on creating jobs, raising the minimum wage, war and peace, the need for health care for all, breaking up big banks, combating climate change and other critical issues. To help voters make the best-informed choice possible, I hope that Secretary Clinton will agree to a date and place for a debate in California.
In a way, Sen. Sanders is correct. There are still Democrats who have not voted, so the primary is not technically over. However, the odds of victory for Sen. Sanders continue to decrease with each passing contest. The problem for Sanders remains that he has not been able to win in the delegate-rich states, or win by a large enough margin to cut into former Sec. of State Clinton’s delegate lead.
During to the Democratic Party’s proportional delegate allotment system, it is only a matter of time until Clinton has enough delegates to be the nominee. The Indiana win was nice, but a 5-6 point victory is not enough. The Sanders campaign dug too deep of a hole for themselves. Bernie Sanders should continue on because his supporters who are funding his campaign deserve to see it through. Heck, Sanders can even contest Clinton’s nomination and force a roll call vote at the convention, but as long as she has 2,383 delegates or more, it doesn’t matter.
According to the AP Delegate Tracker, Hillary Clinton is only 182 delegates short of clinching the nomination. Bernie Sanders is right. The primary is not over for those who haven’t voted, but the long-term projection has gotten worse for Sen. Sanders even after a Hoosier State win.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
