Bernie Sanders on Tuesday vowed that his campaign will “take our fight” to the Democratic National Convention despite Hillary Clinton clinching the Democratic presidential nomination.
Sanders said he plans to compete in next week’s Democratic primary in Washington, D.C., the final nominating contest of the 2016 primary. Media outlets, however, named Clinton the presumptive nominee after earning enough pledged and superdelegates to clinch the nomination.
“We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C. And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental just to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” Sanders told a rowdy crowd of supporters in Santa Monica, California.
Related: Obama Calls Both Democrats; Will Meet With Sanders
“I am pretty good at arithmetic and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight. But we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get,” Sanders said.
NBC News projected Sanders would win North Dakota and Montana, while Clinton took New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. California remains too early to call.
Sanders is scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama on Thursday. Earlier in the night Obama released a statement congratulating Clinton for securing the nomination.
He also thanked Sanders for “energizing millions of Americans with his commitment to issues like fighting economic inequality and special interests' influence on our politics.”
