Bernie Sanders Is Not Skydiving Into His Rally

News reports circulated on Friday morning that presidential candidate Bernie Sanders may be planning on skydiving into a rally in Cloverdale, California, Friday night, The Week reported.

However, it would appear these news reports are false, Gawker reported. The story originated in an article from the Press Democrat, where Jimmy Halliday, president and jumpmaster at NorCal Skydiving, said Sanders staffers were giving Bernie Sanders the option of doing the jump.

“I’ve been told they will run the idea by Bernie,” Halliday said. “I can’t confirm that’s the plan. I know that’s a possibility.”

Though The Guardian was able to confirm that there is not a plan for Sanders to do the jump, it was also confirmed that there had been some interest from Sanders staffers in seeing if it’d be a possibility.

Halliday said a Sanders staffer actually did a trial jump with him to see what it’d be like if Bernie Sanders did skydive into the rally. A spokeswoman from the Sanders campaign was unable to deny that there had been some kind of talks about the possibility of the jump happening.

Bernie Sanders is 74 years old, so it seems unlikely he’d attempt such a feat, but there was apparently interest in it among his campaign workers.

“Now it’s on radar. He read about it… The senator is a long-distance runner,” campaign spokeswoman Symone Sanders told The Guardian. “He likes basketball. He likes baseball… I don’t know if skydiving is the next big thing for him.”

Bernie Sanders is enthusiastically campaigning around California before the June 7 primary in the state, and he’s hoping a win there would give real credibility to his chances of becoming the Democratic nominee. Polls show Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are essentially tied when it comes to voter support in California, so it’s possible he could achieve a narrow victory, according to Slate.

Sanders has repeatedly said he plans to stay in the race until the Democratic National Convention, and winning California could prove there’s a reason for him to do that. He would still need the majority of the superdelegates who are currently supporting Clinton to switch to his side, but that is theoretically possible.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that many young Latinos and Asian-Americans in California are supporting Sanders, which could help him with that race. Those demographics are partially motivated by the desire to stop Donald Trump from becoming president.

Bernie Sanders also released a new campaign ad on Thursday that may be targeted at minority voters. It shows the story of a Black man who went to prison at the age of 17 for killing someone and has since been able to turn his life around through education and work. The ad features Bernie Sanders speeches where he’s shown fighting for free college education and less incarceration.

Despite the fact that Hillary Clinton has received major endorsements in California, including from California Governor Jerry Brown, Sen. Diane Feinstein, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sanders has been able to be competitive in a state that is often seen as representing the face of the Democratic party. Considering he was far behind Clinton in the California polls only a few months ago, his surge in support may say something about how Democratic voters are feeling.

Sanders may not be skydiving into his rally this time, or possibly any time, but it does look like California is in for an intense primary on Tuesday.

[Photo by David McNew/Getty Images]