WASHINGTON — The results of Tuesday's five Democratic presidential primaries will almost certainly force Sen. Bernie Sanders to acknowledge a hard reality — it's time for Plan B.
Sanders hasn’t said whether he has a strategy for changing the focus of his campaign, and he insisted at an Indiana rally on Wednesday that he's still in the race against Hillary Clinton to win the nomination. But he laid off more than 200 staffers on Wednesday and began talking about what will happen "if we do not win."
He said at the rally he intends to win every delegate possible so he'll have enough votes at the Democratic Party's national convention in July to put together "the strongest progressive agenda that any political party has ever seen."
"Our job, whether we win or whether we do not win, is to transform not only our country, but the Democratic Party, to open the doors of the Democratic Party, to working people and young people and senior citizens in a way that does not exist today," he told 2,267 supporters gathered at Purdue University.
Tuesday's contests — Clinton won in Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania, while Sanders won Rhode Island — gave Clinton a nearly insurmountable lead in pledged delegates, and she already was way ahead of Sanders in superdelegates, the unpledged party leaders and officials who may support the candidate of their choice at the convention. As of Wednesday, Clinton had 90% of the delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
But Tad Devine, a top adviser to Sanders, said Monday that Sanders will arrive at the convention with enough pledged delegates to file minority reports — or dissents from the majority — at the event, which could prolong it by requiring debates on the issues most important to him if the campaigns don't negotiate their differences. Democratic Party rules allow for minority reports at the request of 25% of members on the convention's Platform, Credentials and Rules committees.
Sanders has said he will work to prevent a Republican from becoming president. But he also said he wants to see Clinton embrace some of his top priorities if she's the nominee. He said in a Tuesday night statement he wants a party platform that calls for "a $15 an hour minimum wage, an end to our disastrous trade policies, a Medicare-for-all health care system, breaking up Wall Street financial institutions, ending fracking in our country, making public colleges and universities tuition free and passing a carbon tax so we can effectively address the planetary crisis of climate change.”
The campaign hasn’t decided which other issues it would raise at the convention or how it would raise them. But Devine said areas where Sanders wants to see reform include:
Voter participation
Sanders, whose coalition includes young people and independents, believes closed primaries — those open only to registered Democrats — deny many energized independents the right to vote and discourage them from joining the Democratic Party. Appearing on CNN Tuesday, his wife, Jane Sanders, called for an open primary process with same-day registration.
“Shutting people out of the process when they’re excited about politics is not smart,” she said.
Superdelegates
Clinton is backed by 520 superdelegates compared with 39 who back Sanders, according to the Associated Press. Sanders supporters have launched petitions calling on superdelegates to back the will of voters at the convention.
"The concern would be that we have a process that is eroding democracy. We want to have a process where voters decide," Devine said.
Campaign funding
The Sanders campaign wants to address concerns about the use of joint fundraising committees after recently accusing Clinton and the Democratic National Committee of violating fundraising laws. They say the committee appears to be skirting legal limits on donations by investing millions in online fundraising and advertising that solely benefits Clinton’s campaign. Clinton and the DNC reject the allegation.
After more than two decades in Congress as an independent, Sanders plans to remain a Democrat and would have registered as one if his home state of Vermont had party registration, Devine said.
“He has an interest in the future of the Democratic Party as a Democrat,” Devine said.
In a Wednesday fundraising email to supporters, Sanders described his path to the nomination as "very narrow" but said upcoming contests in California and other states will be "very favorable" to him. But Devine on Monday said the campaign would re-evaluate after Tuesday’s contests whether the path to the nomination is viable and he acknowledged that the campaign will have to “concede the facts” if it's obvious a path to the nomination doesn't exist.
Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver confirmed that about 225 staffers — mostly field staffers in states that voted Tuesday — were told Wednesday they were being laid off. That will bring the campaign's total staff down to about 300 from its peak of 1,000 before the Iowa caucuses.
The campaign will be the leanest it's been since the fall, but Weaver said there's less need for field staff now, with most of the primary season over.
The layoff decision was made two weeks ago and wasn't a reaction to Tuesday's losses, Weaver said.
Sanders told The New York Times he'd rehire every staffer if he wins the nomination.
“But right now, we have to use all of the resources we have and focus them on the remaining states,” he said.
In his Tuesday night statement, Sanders said he's in the race until the end because “the people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be." He said he looks forward to "issue-oriented campaigns" in the remaining contests, but he told the AP he would "of course" continue to draw distinctions between his record and Clinton's.
"I'm getting attacked by Hillary Clinton and her surrogates every damn day," he said. "Every day, we're getting attacked and our record is being distorted."
Republican front-runner Donald Trump said Wednesday morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe he would look to Sanders' speeches for "very good material" to use against Clinton in a general-election matchup.
"When he said 'bad judgment,' I said, 'sound bite,' " Trump said.
Democrats agree Sanders should stay in the race even if Clinton clinches the nomination. A new USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll showed 54% of likely Democratic voters say he should continue campaigning through the convention, and 60% say the candidate who wins the most pledged delegates should be the nominee.
Clinton said of Sanders supporters Tuesday night, "There's much more that unites us than divides us," and she called on Democrats to "stand together and work hard to prevail against candidates on the other side" who would threaten people's rights and "pit Americans against each other."
Clinton said at an MSNBC town hall Monday that it's up to Sanders to decide whether to stay in the race. But she said she did "the right thing" during the 2008 presidential campaign when she worked to help elect her campaign opponent, Barack Obama, after concluding in June he would be the Democratic nominee.
“It was good for the country,” she said.
Sanders' supporters expect him to continue pushing the party in a more populist, progressive direction.
“Should Bernie Sanders not win the nomination, I think he’s going to have a grassroots army behind him of folks who are fighting for very specific things — Social Security, debt-free college, Wall Street accountability, fair trade,” said Neil Sroka, communications director for the progressive Democracy for America political action committee. “There’s no doubt that Bernie Sanders, through his campaign, built a tremendous amount of power for progressives and the populist progressive policies that we’re pushing for. That doesn’t dissipate in June, no matter what. In a lot of ways, it only ramps up.”
