Watch Bernie Sanders Rally Return To Spokane — Full Speech: ‘Revolution’ Soars After Tuesday Victories
Bernie Sanders brings his “political revolution” back to Spokane with a huge rally that will stream live Thursday, just two days before the Washington state Democratic caucuses — with 118 delegates on the line. Those are delegates that Sanders badly needs to keep the momentum he gained from two big wins on Tuesday rolling ahead as he continues his quest to catch up to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
On Tuesday, Sanders won caucuses in Utah and Idaho by wide margins over Clinton, taking a total of 43 delegates from the two states, to just 14 claimed by Clinton, according to a count by Pollster.com. Sanders lost the Arizona primary, however, ending up with 31 delegates there while Clinton walked away with 49.
But, while final delegate totals have not been tabulated, Sanders still won the night — though by a little, not a lot — slashing Clinton’s lead by about 11.
The victory may have been a small one considering that Clinton entered the night with a lead of well over 300 delegates, but Sanders appears likely to win Washington this weekend, as well as caucuses in Alaska and Hawaii, which would help him further chip away.
Thanks to the Republican administration of Governor Doug Ducey eliminating about 70 polling locations for Tuesday’s voting in a move supposedly designed to “save money,” an undetermined number of people — possibly into the thousands – may not have had a chance to vote, while many voters who did get in waited in line up to five hours to exercise their democratic right.
Sanders called the voting debacle “a disgrace.” But many of his supporters went further, believing that a conspiracy was afoot to deny Sanders victory in Arizona — a notion that Sanders at least mildly encouraged at a rally in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
On AZ’s huge lines to vote yesterday, @BernieSanders says he doesn’t know if it was “deliberate” or “incompetence.” pic.twitter.com/Oo8jlxs8xn
— Danny Freeman (@DannyEFreeman) March 24, 2016
Watch that Los Angeles rally in the video below.
And watch a live stream of the Bernie Sanders rally in Spokane, Washington, on Thursday in the video below. Sanders is expected to take to the podium at about 2 p.m. Pacific Time, 5 p.m. Eastern. The live stream will likely start earlier than that, with doors opening for the rally at 9 a.m.
The Spokane rally on Thursday will be the second there for Bernie Sanders in four days, and the first of three in Washington over a two-day period — wrapping up with what should be a blockbuster rally at Safeco Field in Seattle, a 54,000-seat baseball stadium.
The Thursday rally in Spokane will be held at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, a facility that holds about 12,000 people. When Bernie Sanders brought his “Future To Believe In” rally to Spokane last Sunday, he drew a crowd of about 10,000.
There has been no meaningful polling conducted in Washington, meaning that the state of the Democratic race there is difficult to assess. But the state’s demographics favor Bernie Sanders, who has so far won every state in which the African-American population numbers below eight percent of the total population, with the exception of Iowa, in which he finished in a virtual tie with Hillary Clinton.
The African-American population of Washington state is just 4.1 percent, according to the United States Census Bureau, while the state is more than 80 percent white.
Even with his gains on Tuesday, Sanders still trails Clinton by 304 delegates, giving him a steep hill to climb and meaning that he needs to win Washington decisively on Saturday, along with similarly decisive victories in Alaska and Hawaii, to cut further into that Clinton advantage.
“It’s a simple function of math. Sanders needs to win a lot of states with a lot of delegates by a lot of points,” wrote Washington Post polling analyst Philip Bump on Wednesday.
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Bernie Sanders will also hold a rally in Portland, Oregon, on Friday — even though that state with its 73 delegates does not vote until May 17.
[Featured Photo By Lenny Ignelzi / Associated Press]
