WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) — After losing four of five states voting Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders acknowledged his campaign is laying off “hundreds” of employees, the starkest signal yet that his candidacy may be nearing its end.
Sanders’ communications director said a majority of those affected by the layoffs were field operatives who had worked in the five states that voted Tuesday. The spokesman said the layoffs were partially due to the fact that there are just 14 states remaining on the primary calendar, which means the campaign does not require as many field operatives on the payroll.
It is also an unmistakable signal the campaign does not believe those employees will be needed in a general election.
Sanders has maintained he intends to campaign “until the last vote is cast.” The New York Times reported Wednesday that Sanders would focus his remaining resources on winning the last state on the calendar, California.
“We don’t need people right now in Connecticut. That election is over,” Sanders told the Times. “We don’t need them in Maryland. So what we are going to do is allocate our resources to the 14 contests that remain, and that means that we are going to be cutting back on staff.”
In a statement released after Tuesday’s election results, Sanders signaled he intends to retain the convention delegates he has already earned “to fight for a progressive party platform.”
The talk of layoffs and influencing the party platform — rather than winning the primary campaign and becoming the party’s standard-bearer in the fall — is a marked shift in rhetoric about the campaign’s prospects.
As recently as last week, his advisers insisted Sanders still had a viable path to winning the Democratic nomination.
After Tuesday, it is increasingly clear he does not.
Sanders now trails front-runner Hillary Clinton in the pledged delegate count by 302, according to the Times’ estimate. Factoring in superdelegates who have publicly pledged to support Clinton, the lead stretches to nearly 800.
Politico, which first reported the layoffs Wednesday, said Sanders’ fundraising has thus far remained strong. Sanders came into the month of April with $17 million in the bank and has continued to raise vast sums of money through individual online contributions. But as fast as the money was coming it, it is also being spent. According to financial filings with the Federal Elections Commission, Sanders spent $46 million in March.
It is not clear presently how much cash the Sanders campaign has on hand.
