Bernie Sanders wins Rhode Island Democratic primary

Bernie Sanders has won the Democratic presidential primary in Rhode Island. With 55 percent of precincts reported, Sanders has 56.3 percent of the vote, Hillary Clinton 42 percent. 

This week, the Vermont senator made plain why he's staying in all the way to the national convention.

"We have got to involve people," he told CNN. "And it's not easy, because so many people have given up on the political process, including a whole lot of low-income people. Our job is to bring people into the political process."

Sanders went on to say that his goal was to "revitalize American democracy."

"What is good for America, what is good for the Democratic party, is to see a whole lot of people debating the real issues impacting our country," he said. "That's how you have a large voter turnout. And when you have a large voter turnout, Democrats and progressives win, and Republicans will lose."

He might be right about that, but the fact is, a lot of Sanders' supporters have very vocally said it's "Bernie or bust," that they have no plans to vote for Clinton in November if she's the Democratic nominee. Which leaves nervous Clinton backers and Democratic Party officials wondering if Sanders would be willing to play a significant role in a general-election campaign headed by his primaries rival. His hard-hitting rhetoric of recent weeks, combined with the fact that he's spent most of his long political career not as a Democrat but as a social-democratic independent, suggests to many that he wouldn't.