PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — The Democratic National Convention closes with many delegates who went to Philadelphia to support U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) lining up behind Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
Doris Irwin, a Sanders delegate from Mercer County, said she and those like her are taking their cues from Sanders.
He spoke to members of the West Virginia delegation on Thursday morning, the final day of the DNC.
“In order to be with Bernie Sanders now and to continue, I feel that we need to support Hillary Clinton,” Irwin said Thursday. “She (Clinton) is a solid ‘B’ candidate and (Republican Presidential Nominee) Donald Trump is a big, fat zero.”
Irwin was one of 18 West Virginia delegates who cast ballots for Sanders during Tuesday’s Convention Roll Call.
Even though Sanders won the May 10 primary popular vote in the Mountain State with more than 50 percent of the vote, 19 West Virginia delegates, including the eight superdelegates, backed Clinton.
Coy Flowers, a Clinton delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Greenbrier County, predicted Clinton would find support among many of those Sanders voters in the Nov. 8 general election.
Many West Virginians, he claimed, are turned off by Trump.
“They are speechless when they listen to what Donald Trump says,” Flowers said. “A negative campaign, one that’s filled with hate, is never going to, in the end, prevail in West Virginia or in America.”
Both Irwin and Flowers were guests on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline” from Philadelphia.
Clinton was scheduled to officially accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination during a speech Thursday night following an introduction from her daughter, Chelsea.
The Democratic National Convention opened Monday at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center.