[B]ernie Sanders outlined priorities for the upcoming Democratic National Convention and beyond during a conference call with his pledged delegates Tuesday, just hours after he endorsed Hillary Clinton in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
“We are still officially a candidate. We haven’t suspended our campaign,” he told the delegates. “I’m not going to suspend my campaign. We’re going to Philadelphia with 1,900 delegates.”
Sanders received 1,894 delegates during the Democratic primary season, of whom 1,846 were pledged delegates. Forty-eight superdelegates have announced they will vote for him at the convention. Since Sanders is still a candidate, his pledged delegates must vote for him on the first ballot of the convention.
State Rep. Kevin Christie, D-Hartford, a pledged delegate, said Sanders’ announcement is not unusual. “He’s not the first one to do it, and because of the number of delegates that he has, I think it would have been too soon to actually release the delegates,” Christie said.
“We who are Bernie delegates, and I think I speak for the majority of them, we’re relieved that we have not been released,” said Vermont delegate Shyla Nelson. She said the delegates are eager to vote for Sanders and show their support.
Although Sanders did not clinch the Democratic nomination, he told delegates the fight for progressive causes is far from over. He urged delegates to go to Philadelphia. “We need you there, and we need you to vote for Bernie Sanders for president,” he said.
But he also indicated his priorities have shifted from running for president to helping Clinton fight the expected Republican nominee, Donald Trump.
“No one has to explain to me that we have very serious differences with Secretary Clinton,” he said. “But I think it is also fair to say that there is no issue — virtually no issue — where she is not far, far, far superior to Donald Trump.”
He called Trump a demagogue and said he dreads thinking about “what this country would look like if, God forbid, Donald Trump were to be elected.”
Sanders told his supporters he intends to speak at the convention. He will use his time to challenge the party’s superdelegate system, he said, which allows party officials to vote in the convention for whichever Democratic candidate they choose regardless of the popular vote.
He also outlined his post-convention goals. “In the coming weeks I will be announcing the creation of a successor organization to our presidential campaign to advance the struggle that we have been a part of in the last 15 months,” he said.
The goals of this organization would be to “create a 50-state strategy” to support progressive candidates in local, state and federal elections. Sanders set a goal of supporting 100 candidates in the near future.
Nelson, who was on the conference call, said Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton was difficult for a lot of his supporters but that the conference call lifted her spirits.
“It was energizing and inspiring for all of the delegates who were on the call,” she said. “Certainly checking in with my colleagues afterwards, I think we all came away feeling very hopeful that what this campaign represents is not the ending of anything but rather the beginning of something entirely new.”