Election 2016: Bernie Sanders campaigns in Pomona

POMONA >> To chants of “si se puede,” presidential candidate Beie Sanders courted minority voters Thursday.

Sanders retued to the 909 Thursday for his third campaign stop in three days.

“This campaign is listening to people whose voices are not often heard. We are listening to the Latino community,” he said before thousands at Ganesha High School.

He also referenced gay marriage, a “very ugly attempt to delegitimize the first African-American president in U.S. history and immigration issues, calling for an end to the current deportation policies. “Let’s unite families, not divide families,” he said.

Ahead of the June 7 primary, Sanders, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump have been all over Califoia the past two weeks. Sanders campaigned in Riverside and San Beardino Tuesday, and Clinton campaigned in Riverside that evening.

In Pomona Thursday, as in previous appearances, Sanders hit hard a number of topics.

On health care: “We are going to pass a Medicare for all system.”

On manufacturing: “Corporate America wants us to buy their products. They damn well better manufacture them here at home.”

On drug use: “I will take out marijuana from the federal controlled substances.”

Sanders remained confident that he would go “marching into the (Democratic) convention” with the momentum needed to best Clinton, before beating Trump “very, very badly.”

Genesha is the same venue where Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, spoke Saturday on her behalf. While the 42nd president campaigned on the school’s central quad, Sanders took to the school’s football stadium.

“The Sanders’ campaign choosing the same venue appears a bit unusual,” University of La Vee professor Marcia Godwin said in an email. “However, logistics and security measures can be more easily duplicated when it has just hosted an event.”

• Video: Crowd waits for Beie Sanders

Pomona makes sense as a campaign stop for other reasons as well, Godwin said, noting local Democrats — particularly U.S. Rep. Norma Torres and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis — have strong ties to President Obama.

Claremont McKea College professor John J. Pitney, Jr. said Pomona offers strategic advantages to reaching the Latino vote. Clinton’s 9-point lead among likely Hispanic voters is “surprisingly modest,” he said.

“The Hispanic vote is in play, and Pomona is overwhelmingly Hispanic,” Pitney said in an email. “Moreover, a candidate visit is likely to make more of an impression there than in Los Angeles. Major political figures visit LA all the time, but a visit to Pomona is something special.”

Advertisement

Although Trump is now effectively alone in the Republican nomination field, both Democrats are looking for a big win in Califoia, where the 548 delegates are the largest remaining pool available.

• Photos: Beie Sanders campaigns in Pomona

Clinton has 1,768 pledged delegates to Sanders’ 1,494. Clinton also has many more superdelegates — party officials and elected officials such as Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-San Beardino. Clinton has 525 superdelegates, while Sanders has 39. Democratic primary candidates need a total of 2,293 delegates to win the nomination.

Clinton leads Sanders by about 2.9 million votes cast during the 2016 primary season so far.

Sanders has said he won’t drop out before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in late July.

42 minutes ago

“If we can win big in Califoia, we can go marching into the convention with enormous momentum,” he said Thursday.

A new poll released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of Califoia shows Clinton leading Sanders only by 2 points — 46 to 44 percent — among likely Democratic primary voters, including independents who say they intend to vote in the Democratic primary June 7.