White House hopeful Bernie Sanders, who has fought the Democratic establishment throughout his campaign, made an extraordinary appeal for party insiders to help deliver the nomination to him, even if he doesn't catch rival Hillary Clinton in the remaining primaries and caucuses.
Addressing reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, Sanders made a public plea for Democratic superdelegates to reconsider their allegiances to Clinton, particularly those in states where he has won nominating contests or those who committed to Clinton before he entered the race.
"They're going to have to go into their hearts, and they are going to have to ask, do they want the second strongest candidate to run against [Republican front-runner Donald] Trump or do they want the strongest candidate?" Sanders said, suggesting that he is the strongest based on polling data.
Sanders's pitch comes at a point in the race where even he has acknowledged a very narrow patch to winning the nomination and has talked publicly about a secondary goal of shaping the Democratic Party's platform.
Today the senator from Vermont signalled that he has no intention of ending his fight before the July convention in Philadelphia. Discussing delegate maths in a fashion more typical of a campaign consultant than a candidate, Sanders said he thinks it is highly unlikely that Clinton will have won the 2383 delegates needed to claim the nomination based on primary and caucus results alone.