SALEM, Ore. — Forging ahead with momentum from two wins in the past week, Bernie Sanders zeroed in on Oregon’s May 17 primary with a rally in the state’s capitol city of Salem on Tuesday evening before several thousand devoted supporters.
It marked Sanders’ fourth Oregon rally — and the seventh stop by a presidential campaign across the state since March — and this time he arrived to another lively crowd that was enthusiastic over his win in West Virginia earlier that day, which followed another surprise win in Indiana a week prior. In Salem, he roused the crowd by predicting another big win May 17 in Oregon, which is self-proclaimed Bernie Sanders country.
“Some might go vote for Hillary Clinton to try and beat Donald Trump, but I’m still for Bernie,” said 34-year-old Alfonso Barrera, who traveled to the rally from Albany. “It’s like, I’ve been a 49er fan my entire life whether we’re winning or losing. I’m a Bernie fan. I like what he stands for.”
Despite trailing almost insurmountably behind Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in delegates, Sanders has refused to give up after walking away with the recent wins. He’s now looking to Oregon and the nine other remaining Democratic state primaries to help him achieve the near-impossible: a brokered national convention in Philadelphia this summer.
“We are in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination,” Sanders said.
Sanders has won 19 states to Clinton’s 23, but she is 94 percent of the way to winning the nomination with just 145 delegates short of the 2,383 required.
That means she could lose all the states left to vote and still become the nominee, as long as her vast support among party insiders known as superdelegates continues. Superdelegates are free to vote as they please at the national convention.
That makes Oregon’s 13 democratic superdelegates — a handful of which have already endorsed Clinton —up for grabs next week a drop in the bucket. Still, Oregon has one of the strongest Sanders-leaning electorates of the few states with remaining primaries, which could bode well for him considering the state’s 61 bound delegates will be doled out proportionally based on next week’s results.
Hillary Clinton has not yet visited Oregon, but her husband has been in the state twice in recent weeks.
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