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Tuesday, April 16, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Sanders Surprises California Delegation

PHILADELPHIA (CN) -Sen. Bernie Sanders made a surprise appearance before the California delegation, the largest single group of delegates at the Democratic National Convention, on Tuesday morning, where he urged delegates to get behind Hillary Clinton.

In addition to the sheer size of the delegation it boasts a total 475 delegates Sanders' visit was especially significant because of how well he did in California in the June 7 Democratic primary.

When all the votes were counted, Clinton won 55.8 percent to 43.2 percent, but the delegates were awarded proportionally, meaning Clinton got 254 and Sanders garnered 221 enough to raise a sizable ruckus when the time comes for the state to vote during the nominating roll call Tuesday night.

Sanders, who ran an insurgent campaign to challenge Clinton, repeated his endorsement of the presumptive nominee, drawing boos from the large contingent of his die-hard supporters in the California delegation.

But Sanders shut down the booers, saying their support is necessary to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump.

"It is easy to boo, but it is harder to look your kids in the face who will be living under a Donald Trump presidency," Sanders told the California delegation over breakfast Tuesday morning.

As the Vermont senators' supporters struggle to grapple with where the "political revolution" Sanders claimed to foment on the campaign trail goes now, the candidate insisted it will not end with his campaign.

"Politics is not easy stuff," Sanders said. "You don't get everything you want tomorrow. Ask the people who fought in the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the labor movement."

He said the revolution had accomplished more than even its firmest believers could not have dreamed, pointing to a party platform that embraced many of the planks he railed on during his packed campaign rallies in the primary season.

Addressing where the movement he helped build goes after the election, Sanders promised candidates at all levels of government to help build a more progressive government.

"What the political revolution means is we keep going," Sanders said. "We keep going. We think big not small, we have the guts to take on the billionaire class, we have the guts to transform this country."

But Sanders speech seemed not to calm all of his supporters in the audience. During the convention the night before, Sanders' supporters booed and chanted "Bernie, Bernie," every time someone mentioned Clinton's election as inevitable.

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken followed Sanders, and after he sat down a woman stood up in the audience and shouted "this election was a disgrace."

Chants of "Hillary, Hillary" followed, which largely drowned out Sanders supporters' chants of "Bernie, Bernie."

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