A tall order: Sanders' only hope is to convince nearly 400 Clinton 'superdelegates' to switch to him
SEATTLE -- Bernie Sanders shows no signs of dropping out of the Democratic presidential race – even after rival Hillary Clinton declared victory with enough pledged and superdelegates to secure the nomination.
“We will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get,” he said to cheering supporters in Santa Monica, Calif., Tuesday night.
Sanders’ only hope now is to have superdelegates -- elected officials and party leaders -- to switch in huge numbers from supporting Clinton to supporting him. But that’s going to be a hard sell, even in states such as Washington that went overwhelmingly for Sanders in the Democratic caucus.
Gov. Jay Inslee, a superdelegate, remains a steadfast Clinton supporter, and says that she is the right candidate to take on Donald Trump.
“I certainly have never seen anyone aspire to any federal office that is so offensive to the values of the state of Washington,” Inslee said, alluding to Trump. “I think both Democrats and Republicans are realizing that.”
Of Washington’s 17 superdelegates, 10 are supporting Clinton and 7 are uncommitted.
Nationally, 572 superdelegates are supporting Clinton and 48 are supporting Sanders.
Sanders would need 517 superdelegates to win the nomination. That means he would have to convince all the uncommitted delegates to come his way (nearly 100) and peel off nearly 400 delegates who are already committed to Clinton.
That kind of superdelegate migration has never happened before.
Sanders is hoping to convince them by citing polls that show he does better against Trump than Clinton. But the vast majority of superdelegates point to the fact that Clinton received millions of more votes as a reason they are standing by her.