Sanders: The Race Is Not Over Yet, As Clinton Thinks

Bernie Sanders declared on Tuesday that the battle against Hillary Clinton is not over. He pointed to his success in Indiana and his strength in impending races to indicate his durability.

"I know that the Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over. They're wrong," Sanders said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from New Albany, Indiana. "Maybe it's over for the insiders and the party establishment but the voters today in Indiana had a different idea."

After defeating Clinton in Indiana's primary, he said he would get "more victories in the weeks to come" in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, and California. Though he agreed that he faced an "uphill climb" to the Democratic nomination, he affirmed that he was "in this campaign to win and we are going to fight until the last vote is cast."

In Louisville on Tuesday night, Sanders had pointed out: "in primary after primary, caucus after caucus, we end up winning the vote of people 45 years of age and younger," proving that "the ideas that we are fighting for are the ideas of the future of America and the future of the Democratic party." His campaign, he said, "is a political revolution."

However, Sanders' Indiana win is not likely to affect Clinton's lead of more than 300 pledged delegates. Though she is about 90% of the way to getting the Democratic nomination with superdelegates, elected officials and party leaders can swing either way.

Sanders feels that he is in the best position to defeat Republican Donald Trump. "There is nothing more I would like than to take on and defeat Donald Trump, someone who must never become president of this country."

He disagreed that he wanted to drop out, and rejected the idea that criticising Clinton's record on issues like trade, campaign finance, and the Iraq war would support Trump.

"There is nothing that I have said about Secretary Clinton that the Republicans are not more than aware of. They must have dozens and dozens of opposition researchers," Sanders said. "They will go into areas that I have chosen not to go into. They will be talking about emails. They will be talking about the Clinton foundation."

He added that he wanted to debate Clinton in California later this month. Both their campaigns had agreed to organise the forum in what is the country's largest state.