From: "Paustenbach, Mark" <[email-masked]>
To: "Miranda, Luis" <[email-masked]>, "Dacey, Amy" <[email-masked]>, "Dillon, Lauren" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2016 20:30:16 -0700

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/bernie-sanders-campaign_us_572026a2e4b0b49df6a9a40f?41e3fklf3lqln5ewmi=

Key excerpts:

--Despite a series of costly defeats on Tuesday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) remains committed to seeing the Democratic primary through to the convention, his top aide, Tad Devine, told The Huffington Post.

--“It is not just a campaign. It is a cause. It is something much bigger than him,” said Devine. “We want to make sure that anybody who has been part of this campaign, the contributors and volunteers, has a chance to vote for him and what he represents.”

--He said the campaign remained committed to trying to persuade so-called superdelegates to change their support from Clinton by arguing that Sanders would be a stronger general election candidate. The argument would be aided, Devine said, by the upcoming primary calendar. Primaries in Indiana and California (which allow independents to vote), along with demographically favorable states like Kentucky and Oregon, would yield victories for Sanders and change the conversation heading into the convention, Devine predicted.

--Devine did allow himself to address the hypothetical of a Sanders and Clinton rapprochement at the end of the primary process. While Sanders has pledged to support Clinton as the nominee, Devine suggested that it wouldn’t be a simple or even an orderly process. Looking back to 2008, Devine argued that the philosophical distance between Clinton and then-Sen. Barack Obama was narrower than what exists between Clinton and Sanders now. And while the Sanders campaign was happy to hear Clinton pledged her commitment to some of the causes that he has pushed during this campaign, Devine made it clear that his boss wanted to see something firmer. 

Mark Paustenbach
National Press Secretary &
Deputy Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
202.863.8148
[email-masked]