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Merkley Will Cast Superdelegate Vote For Sanders At DNC

www.merkley.senate.gov

Democrats meet in Philadelphia this week to nominate Hillary Clinton for President. Oregon's U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley is a superdelegate to the convention, but he will not cast his vote for the former secretary of state.

Credit www.merkley.senate.gov

In April Merkley became the first and only sitting senator to endorse Vermont's Bernie Sanders. And that's who he'll vote for as a superdelegate this week at the Democratic National Convention.

Merkley: "I think it's very important that the voice of the Sanders movement is heard—that is the desire to put forward bold, ideas, to take on very big problems that we have in America."

Merkley says those problems include the high cost of college, mass incarceration, and lack of economic opportunity. He says he was impressed with the former secretary of state's decision to adopt some of the Sanders platform.  

Although the Oregon Senator will endorse Sanders at the DNC, he says he will proudly support Clinton in the general election.

Senator Merkley is speaking Monday night at the DNC in Philadelphia.

Copyright 2016 KLCC

Kyra Buckley is a reporter for Oregon Public Broadcasting, a JPR news partner. Kyra's reporting comes to JPR through the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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