Although Bernie Sanders is heading into primary states where he is likely to lose to Hillary Clinton, the one-time “fringe candidate” believes the momentum behind his “political revolution” will bolster him through challenging primaries and allow him to clinch the Democratic nomination.
“No, no no no no,” Sanders said shaking his head when asked if he was writing off South Carolina primary during a press conference there Wednesday morning.
The Vermont senator had only 7 percent support when he began campaigning in South Carolina. Today his campaign has 33.3 percent support, but he still trails Clinton by more than 20 points. In the weeks leading up to the state’s primary, Sanders hasn’t spent as much time there as Clinton has, leading many to believe that he is looking beyond South Carolina to more likely victories.
“We are not writing off South Carolina. Now you know on March 1 there are a dozen states that are holding elections and the nature of the world is that we are going to go out to these states,” Sanders insisted, listing Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Colorado and Vermont as states he believes he can be victorious.
When further asked by reporters if he could feasibly compete with Clinton if she sweeps the majority of the SEC primary states, Sanders told them they weren’t looking at the big picture and that there are too many delegates still up for grabs to know what will happen.
“What we are being compared to is Barack Obama in 2008, he broke the mold,” Sanders said, noting the potential of his campaign’s enthusiasm. “I am first to say that Obama ran an extraordinary campaign in 2008. Maybe we can’t run as strong of a campaign, but we are doing very, very well.”
