Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will join presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at an event Tuesday in New Hampshire, their campaigns said.
Sanders made his most pro-Clinton comments to date on Thursday, signaling a formal endorsement of his primary rival was imminent. “We have got to do everything that we can to defeat Donald Trump and elect Hillary Clinton,” he said in a taping for PBS’s “Charlie Rose” program.
Clinton and Sanders will “discuss their commitment to building an America that is stronger together and an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top,” at Portsmouth High School, according to e-mailed statements from the two campaigns.
An endorsement event in the state where Clinton and Barack Obama held their first joint rally in 2008 has been under discussion by the two campaigns, a person familiar with the planning said last week.
Sanders has been working to influence the party’s agenda since Clinton clinched the nomination last month. In recent weeks, Clinton has offered plans on health care and college affordability that won Sanders’ praise.
The event announcement follows a weekend of intense debate among Democratic Party activists in Orlando, Florida, about the final draft of the 2016 platform, a non-binding and largely symbolic document that will be presented at the party’s convention in Philadelphia later this month.
An earlier draft hit Wall Street hard in a reflection of Sanders’ increased influence on the party. On Saturday, Democrats approved stricter financial-crime language in the final platform draft.
Sanders’ team on Saturday lost a fight to amend the platform to say the Trans-Pacific Partnership shouldn’t get a congressional vote. Clinton came out in opposition to the trade pact during the primary, after supporting the early stages of the deal when she served as Obama’s secretary of state.
An amendment to add Clinton’s name to the platform in a show of unity didn’t get a vote at the end of the weekend despite support from both campaigns, highlighting that some Sanders supporters are still not ready to get behind the presumptive nominee even as their preferred candidate appears ready to do so.
About half of Sanders’ primary supporters said they’ll back Clinton in the general election against Republican Donald Trump, according to a Bloomberg Politics national poll conducted last month.
More Coverage
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story