Sanders Vows To Stay In Race Despite Tuesday's Big Losses

On a campaign stop at Purdue University Wednesday, Democrat Bernie Sanders said he’s staying in the presidential race to win it, even after his losses Tuesday make it increasingly unlikely for him to secure the nomination.  

Sanders lost four of Tuesday’s five primaries. But he says he’s in the Hoosier State to win, and he’s staying in the race to become the Democratic nominee for president.

“And with your help, super delegates may well reach the conclusion that Bernie Sanders will be the strongest candidate against Donald Trump or any other Republican," Sanders told the crowd.

Still, Sanders acknowledges that if he doesn’t win, he’ll still try to win every delegate he can before the Democratic National Convention.

“So that when we go to Philadelphia in July, we’re gonna have the votes to put together the strongest progressive agenda that any political party has ever seen,” he said.

Sanders' rival, Hillary Clinton, already appears to be looking beyond the primary contests with Sanders and toward the November general election. She is about 90 percent of the way toward the number of delegates she needs to secure the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention this summer. 

Though it took him until nearly halfway through his speech, Bernie Sanders did touch on college affordability which may have sounded familiar on to the campus.

The Vermont senator has proposed levying a tax on big Wall Street financial firms, which he says would generate enough money to offset the cost of public college education for any American who wants it.

But while making college cheaper is an issue on which Sanders broadly agrees with Purdue President Mitch Daniels, Purdue’s leader said as early as last August that he didn’t put much stock in Sanders’ idea.

“A lot of these things – and other things presidential candidate in both parties do at this time – is throw things out that are less serious proposals than attempts to make statements about their priorities,” Daniels said.

Still, Sanders sounded a message remarkably similar to Daniels’ talks since starting at Purdue – all focused around trying not to, as both have put it, saddle college students with so much debt when they graduate.

“And if we must have a well-educated workforce, why are we punishing people for getting an education?" He said. "We should reward them, not punish them.”

Sanders said the Purdue stop would not be his only one in Indiana before the May 3 primary.

WBAA's Stan Jastrzebski contributed to this report.