Following his victory in Indiana Tuesday night, Bernie Sanders called on Hillary Clinton to agree to a debate in California before the state’s June 7 primary.
“The Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over. They’re wrong. Maybe it’s over for the insiders and the party establishment, but the voters in Indiana had a different idea. The campaign wasn’t over for them,” Sanders said in a statement Tuesday night.
He added, “The voters in the remaining contests deserve a chance to compare my record and Hillary Clinton’s … To help voters make the best-informed choice possible, I hope that Secretary Clinton will agree to a date and place for a debate in California.”
Sanders’ success in Indiana was his 18th primary victory of the 2016 cycle. But despite the win, the Vermont senator is still hundreds of delegates behind the former secretary of state in the Democratic nominating contest, and is unlikely to surpass her in the fight to 2,383 delegates to secure the nomination.
Despite the odds, the Sanders campaign has repeatedly said that they plan to stay in the contest through the Democratic convention in July, which they predict will be contested.
“We understand that we have an uphill climb to victory but we have been fighting uphill from the first day of this campaign. We are in this campaign to win and we’re going to fight until the last vote is cast,” Sanders stated. “There is nothing I would like more than to take on and defeat Donald Trump, someone who must never become president of this country.”
