PHILADELPHIA — Bernie Sanders delegates on Monday morning kept fighting for their candidate, even while Sanders delegates ceded the obvious — that Hillary Clinton would be nominated at this week’s convention.
Putting Sanders’ name in the nomination at the convention was the insurgent camp’s order of business Monday morning. Sanders volunteers fanned out across the delegation breakfasts of 50 states Monday to gather the signatures needed to place Sanders name in nomination. This would give Sanders’ supporters an opportunity to vote on the floor for their man. “He said that he wanted all of the votes to be counted,” said Lauren Niedel, a Sanders delegate from Rhode Island Monday. “Without that roll call, he’ll be marginalized.”
The Sanders campaign held a meeting for volunteers Sunday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where campaign staff organized and deployed volunteers for the effort. Sanders supporters told me they are collecting 600 signatures for the effort, and that party rules say no more than 50 signatures can be from the same state.
Eight years ago, the Clinton campaign placed symbolic weight on her name being put in nomination, even while she conceded the nomination to then-Sen. Barack Obama. Sanders has conceded the nomination and endorsed Clinton, and his delegates have said the signature push is not an effort to beat Clinton. Outside the convention, though, some Sanders supporters were holding out hope.
Alyssa King, a Sanders backer who travelled to Philadelophia to “protest the DNC for their collusion with the Hillary campaign,” suggested that the recently revealed DNC emails — showing clear party favoritism of Clinton — should sway superdelegates to switch their votes to Sanders, the victim of a “rigged” system. Other protestors articulated the same hope.
Sanders delegates and volunteers generally didn’t have such high ambitions, even those who saw the process as rigged. “If it was a level playing field, I think we’d be looking at a different situation,” said Todd Ellison, a Sanders delegate from Providence, R.I. “I think Bernie Sanders would be the nominee.”
Timothy P. Carney, the Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
