WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — After the last major round of primaries on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton secured enough delegates to claim her party’s nomination at the July nominating convention. Sanders has not yet conceded defeat to Clinton and continues to campaign ahead of the Washington, DC primary next week.
"I think the role that Bernie will play as we go forward is going to be significant in terms of not only the issue of unity, but also the issue of continuing to galvanize what I think is a very powerful and insurgent progressive, populist side to the party."
Grijalva, who has worked on Sanders’ campaign, said the team will meet over the weekend to discuss the candidate’s strategy moving forward.
"We will have a serious discussion about [his] role, not just short-term at the convention but long-term, in terms of the campaign/movement that generated around his campaign."
Because of Sanders’ campaign, "the genie is out of the bottle" on a host of issues including campaign finance, and motivating non-voters and young voters, Grijalva explained. "Those are lessons to be integrated into our party, as opposed to being put on the shelf."
On Friday, Sanders met with President Barack Obama at the White House, where he announced he will support the fight to defeat the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump in the November election.
More than 12 million voters cast their ballots for Bernie Sanders during the primaries, which is still more than 3.7 million short of Hillary Clinton.
