slides: 5 Reasons Why Bernie Sanders’ Trip to Portland Matters, March 2016

Friday, March 25, 2016

GoLocalPDX News Team and Graphiq

Sanders in Portland in August, a GoLocalPDX photo

“A Future to Believe In” rally in Portland today is expected to be another mega-Sanders event where tens of thousands of progressives flood the Moda Center and “feel the collective Bern.”

But, the event may be more important than just another stop over. On Tuesday, Sanders won two of the three Democratic primaries in the West and won by huge margins — 80% for Sanders and 20% for Hillary Clinton. Clinton won Arizona under a cloud of voting irregularities in which as many as 100,000 were unable to vote.

For Sanders to continue to cut into Clinton’s delegate lead, he needs to continue to show that his campaign has energy, can continue to fundraise and win primaries.

Related Slideshow: 5 Reasons Why Bernie Sanders’ Trip to Portland Matters, March 2016

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#5

Bigger than August

In August, GoLocalPDX reported, “The Bernie Sanders rally at the Moda Center hit an all-time high for the Presidential candidate for this election cycle.
The Portland rally nearly doubled the 15,000 attendees in Seattle. According to Sanders' campaign, over 28,000 people attended the Portland campaign event, causing a stadium overflow.”

So today’s event needs to show the same type of enthusiasm and energy. The bar was set high in August.

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#4

Win Oregon

No matter how you cut it, Sanders needs to win almost every primary and caucus that remains and a must win is Oregon.

In a state that has pockets of tremendous populism and progressivism — Sanders may be the perfect candidate. See the numbers.

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#3

Why Not Clinton

With Clinton growing ever closer to hitting the magic need to secure the Democratic nomination, Sanders needs to convince voters that he is the better choice — not just the more Liberal.

He gave her a pass on the emails and has let up on the fees from Goldman Sachs -- those decisions has cost him.

Portland is the place to take the conversation to a new level in front of thousands.

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#2

Breaking Through the Trump Noise

While Sanders has a strong message on addressing college debt and tacking on Wall Street, the GOP noise of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz has absorbed all the political media coverage for weeks.

Sanders needs to elevate the Democratic race to equal the GOP battle. Portland is a big enough city to launch a powerful new message for the last phase of the primary battle.

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#1

Last Chance

The reality for Sanders is that he needs to win 70+ percent of the remaining delegates in order to win the nomination -- absent a FBI finding of significance against Clinton on her email issue.

Thus, while his message has inspired young voters and disenfranchised older Democrats, he has to broaden his base now and change the dynamics of the race to win. He has had great upset wins, out raised Clinton in the past few months and his America commercial has the best as of the campaign cycle. He needs to flip the table.