On Tuesday, Sanders achieved a major victory over rival candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, winning every county in the West Virginia Democratic primary race. This came one week after a similar victory in Indiana.
"I want to thank the people of West Virginia for the tremendous victory that they gave us today in a state that provided a landslide vote for Hillary Clinton in 2008," Sanders said in a statement. "With this outcome, we now have won primaries and caucuses in 19 states.
"We are in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination and we’re going to stay in the race until the last vote is cast."
Because of both state’s allocation of delegates, neither victory did much for Sanders’ pledged delegate count. Combined, West Virginia and Indiana helped the senator narrow Clinton’s 200-delegate lead by 12, with only a handful of states remaining for him to make up the difference.
Still, the enthusiasm Sanders has tapped into is about more than mere delegate totals. While the mainstream media has brushed off his victories, it ignores the meaning of his success.
"Regardless of what the mainstream media would like you to believe, these victories matter," said Karli Wallace Thompson, a campaign manager for Democracy for America, a group backing the Sanders campaign, according to Common Dreams.
"And not just because each win gets us closer to overtaking Hillary Clinton in the delegate count."
For Thompson, the Senator’s victories are a sign that the American left is tired of accepting the status quo.
"…They send a clear message to the Democratic Party that we refuse to give up on our values. Now that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, some pro-corporate Democrats are sensing an opportunity to move the party even further to the right, to win over the ‘Never Trump’ voters.
"They’re ignoring the fact that modern presidential elections are always won by candidates who motivate their base and speak to their values."
The next Democratic primaries will be held in Kentucky and Oregon, where Sanders has a good chance of winning. If he can carry that momentum through to the convention in July, he may be able to build a case to superdelegates that he is the better choice.
