Some Missouri delegates to the Democratic National Convention who supported the presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders remained reluctant Monday to heed his call to now back former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Sanders spoke to his supporters before for the opening of the convention in Philadelphia where Clinton is likely to receive the party’s presidential nomination. He was booed by many of his own loyalists when he declared, “we have got to elect Hillary Clinton” in order to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“It really sucked the energy out of the room,” said Brent Welder, a St. Louis attorney who is a Sanders delegate.
Sanders is sticking by his endorsement of Clinton, despite recently leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee that appear to show party leaders favoring Clinton over Sanders during the primary campaign — an assertion long made by many Sanders’ supporters.
Welder joined in the booing, chanting in reference to Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton: “take it back.”
Some other Sanders delegates from Missouri also were displeased, though not all as vocally. Jackson Thompson, a software engineer from St. Charles County, said he refrained from booing the suggestion to support Clinton.
“I looked at the person next to me and held my nose,” said Thompson, also a Sanders delegate. But he said he would reluctantly support Clinton, “only out of necessity” to defeat Trump.
But Welder, who organized volunteers for Sanders in Missouri and previously worked on the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John Kerry, said he isn’t yet ready to support Clinton. He pointed to the party emails posted by WikiLeaks as evidence of a “rigged” political system against Sanders.
“We now have proof and documentation that the fix was in during this entire election,” Welder said.
Welder said he hopes superdelegates, who are not bound to any particular candidate, will still shift their support to Sanders instead of Clinton. But that appears unlikely to happen.
Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Roy Temple, a superdelegate who supports Clinton, said he expects Sanders to make the case that Clinton is the best candidate to lead the U.S.
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