Thus far he has rebuffed any suggestion to call it quits and fall in line behind Hillary Clinton, but on Wednesday Sanders did take a step towards winding down his massive campaign apparatus, telling the Times that his campaign is laying off “hundreds” of staff members and making a last stand in California on June 7.
“We want to win as many delegates as we can, so we do not need workers now in states around country,” he told the Times. Many of the staff who worked in the five states that voted this week have been told to look for jobs elsewhere.
The campaign downplayed the news to Politico, arguing that the staff restructuring was simply a matter of right-sizing the campaign with more than 80 percent of the voting already done. But if Sanders were planning on competing in the general election, he’d need to keep those staffers.
Sanders has been 2016’s most prodigious fundraiser to date, particularly with small-dollar donors. But he has also outspent every other candidate from both parties, including roughly $46 million in March alone.