LAS VEGAS — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) addressed a huge crowd of his supporters at the Henderson Pavilion on Saturday, shortly after he congratulated Hillary Clinton on her victory in the Democratic caucus that had the party split down the middle.
Sanders cited his campaigns momentum in the polls and across the nation as setting the pace for a potential victory ahead. “I believe that on Super Tuesday, we have got an excellent chance to win many of those states.”
He first thanked his staff and thousands of volunteers who have worked tirelessly on his behalf before diving into an uncomfortable reality.
As people hear our message, and it’s a tough message because it speaks to the truth of American society today, that a lot of people don’t want to address. And that is that we have a corrupt campaign finance system that is undermining democracy. And that’s the truth.
We will not allow millionaires and their super PACs to continue buying elections in the United States of America. And the American people are catching on that we have a rigged economy.
Since he launched his campaign on April 30 of last year, Sanders has raised nearly $100 million. Clinton hit that number in January of this year. Unlike Clinton, Sanders has received the majority of these donations through individual contributions, indicating his popular appeal among the masses. Sanders and Republican Donald Trump are the only two presidential candidates who have declined to take money from any PACs. Trump, however, is self-financing his entire campaign.
“In a short while, I’ll be on a plane to South Carolina and then we will be competing in 11 states,” Sanders said. In his congratulatory talk with Clinton before he spoke, he said I “believe that we have the wind at our back as we head toward Super Tuesday.”
Several polling places wound up drawing from a deck of cards to break ties between Clinton and Sanders on Saturday.
Kim Davis, the captain of precinct 1511 and a Sanders supporter told Breitbart News that there are “radical candidates on both” the Republican and Democratic sides and “they are taking extreme positions to talk about things. It’s not business as usual,” Davis said.
He said he attributed the large turnout at his particular precinct, compared with 2008, at least in part to a”Republican-dominated, do-nothing Congress… Americans are fed up with the system and they want to see change.”
He said he decision not to rally behind Clinton “was not a negative decision. I would say that it’s a positive decision to get behind the candidate that I felt focused on my top priority, which is to reform the system.”
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.
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