Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks on the campus of Penn State University in State College Thomson Reuters Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said in an interview with the New York Times that he will lay off "hundreds" of campaign workers across the country and focus his efforts on winning the California primary.

"If we can win the largest state in this country, that will send a real message to the American people and to the delegates that this is a campaign that is moving in the direction it should," Sanders told the Times on Wednesday.

Sanders, a US senator from Vermont, lost four out of five states that voted on Tuesday, only beating rival Hillary Clinton in Rhode Island. As Business Insider's Max Tani noted, Clinton's wins Tuesday night in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania put her closer than ever to the nomination and could mark a turning point in the Democratic race.

“We want to win as many delegates as we can, so we do not need workers now in states around country," Sanders continued. "We don’t need people right now in Connecticut. That election is over. We don’t need them in Maryland. So what we are going to do is allocate our resources to the 14 contests that remain, and that means that we are going to be cutting back on staff.”

He promised to rehire "every one of those great people who have helped us get this far" if he wins the nomination.