Bernie Sanders Is Laying Off Campaign Staff

Slimmed-down campaign will focus on Calif.
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 28, 2016 1:20 AM CDT
Bernie Sanders Is Laying Off Campaign Staff
Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., on Wednesday.   (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Bernie Sanders is going to keep his word and fight on until the last day of primary voting—but he'll be doing so with a slimmed-down campaign. His campaign has been letting hundreds of staffers go in a process that sources tell Politico started hours after Tuesday night's primary losses to Hillary Clinton, when he signaled that he would shift gears and start fighting for a progressive Democratic party platform. Campaign manager Jeff Weaver tells CNN that around 200 staffers are being laid off, bringing the team down to between 325 to 350, though he says there were once more than 1,000 people on staff and that downsizing is part of the "natural evolution of every campaign" as the primary process nears its end.

Sanders tells the New York Times that his biggest priority now is California, which votes June 7. "If we can win the largest state in this country, that will send a real message to the American people, and to the delegates that this is a campaign that is moving in the direction it should," he says. The Indianapolis Star reports that Sanders sounded far from defeated when he addressed supporters at two Indiana universities on Wednesday. "The only way that we transform this country is through a political revolution," he said, denouncing the "rigged economy," "corporate greed," and the influence of wealthy donors on the political system. "Our job is to think big," he told supporters. "Our job is to think outside the status quo." (More Bernie Sanders stories.)

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