Bernie Sanders Launches California Primary Campaign in Hollywood

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) officially opened his first California office in Hollywood on Wednesday.

“We have the most delegates here in California. We have the most volunteers in California. We are going to make sure that Bernie Sanders wins California by a huge margin,” said Lauren Steiner, lead organizer for L.A. for Bernie, according to the local ABC News affiliate in Los Angeles ABC 7.
California is the nation’s most delegate-rich state, with Democrats vying for 548 delegates here alone. The Sanders campaign opened its office following a devastating loss to frontrunner Hillary Clinton in her adopted home state of New York on Tuesday.

FiveThirtyEight shows Clinton has 1,443 pledged delegates so far, and Sanders has 1,208. However, the math shows that even if Clinton loses California and all the remaining primary contests, she could still reach enough delegates to win the party’s nomination. The first person to reach 2,383 wins the Democratic nomination.

Hundreds of Sanders volunteers and supporters reportedly turned out for the opening, shuffling through the new headquarters to arm themselves with Sanders gear, ranging from pins to bumper stickers and yard signs.

Local artist Paige Emery covered a bare wall in the office with a painting of Sanders delivering a speech at a podium:

Painted this mural of Bernie tonight (in progress) at the opening reception of Bernie’s campaign headquarters in LA. Join the political revolution!!!#paigeemeryart #berniesanders #feelthebern #bernie2016 #mural

A photo posted by paige emery (@paige__emery) on Apr 20, 2016 at 10:41pm PDT

LAist reports that while Sanders was not present himself, a papier-mâché replica of him made the rounds to pose for pictures.

The California primary takes place on June 7, though mail-in voting begins May 9. Arguably, the contest represents Sanders’ last stand against Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

The campaign HQ is located at 5500 Hollywood Boulevard at Western. It will serve as a base for phone banking, voter registration drives and events over the course of the next month-and-a-half. 

Earlier this month, Sanders fans staged protests outside of CNN’s Hollywood offices, railing against the network for allegedly giving him less coverage than his rival, some referring to the organization as the Clinton News Network. Sanders’ California office is located just 1.5 miles away from the CNN building.

Photo: File

Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.