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Interview: Sanders to remain in presidential race longer despite tough battle: expert

Xinhua, February 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

While U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders may be headed for a tough battle in the next primaries, his growing popularity and strong fundraising ability will give him staying power in the race, a U.S. expert said Wednesday.

"Sanders should be able to stay in the race for a while because he has a strong fundraising base and almost all the money is coming from small donors," Brookings Institution's senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua in an interview.

Sanders has beaten the odds in recent months by defeating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the primary in the state of New Hampshire.

Clinton, the former First Lady and secretary of state, was until recently considered a sure winner for the Democratic Party nomination.

But Sanders' message of decrying the growing U.S. rich-poor divide amid high unemployment has resonated with many Democrats, particularly the Millennials, who have as a group found it difficult to secure good jobs after the economy took a nose dive in 2008.

Many Americans are working in jobs for which they are vastly overqualified, but are unable to find decent jobs amid a still weak economy.

"The South will be tougher for him since it is more conservative and his progressive message won't play as well," West said of Sanders.

The next Democratic primaries will be held in Nevada on Feb. 20 and in South Carolina on Feb. 27.

Indeed, Sanders bills himself as a Democratic Socialist, and many people in conservative southern states believe socialism runs counter to American principles of a free market economy.

Moreover, around half of Democrats in many southern states are African Americans, a group that has historically supported Clinton and her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

"Sanders also could run into problems there because half of the Democratic electorate is likely to be African-American and Clinton has been beating Sanders with that group by a two to one margin," West said. Endi