Bernie Sanders said he expects to do very well in Nevada. | AP Photo Sanders plays the Jesse Jackson card

RENO, Nev. — Bill Clinton invoked Jesse Jackson to knock Barack Obama in 2008 as just another black candidate. Bernie Sanders invoked Jackson on Saturday to knock Hillary Clinton for not going as far as he has for black candidates.

Jackson, the civil rights activist who made a strong primary run in 1988, became a central part of the Clinton-Obama race eight years ago when the former president said Jackson had done well in the South Carolina primary too, lighting up racial anger and becoming a key moment in the collapse of Hillary Clinton's campaign that year.


Now that Hillary Clinton is hoping to win the primary race against Sanders by calling on her black support, the Vermont senator eagerly turned back to Jackson when asked if she was trying too hard to make the campaign now about race.

"Back in 1988, I was mayor of a small city in America, the largest city in the state of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, in a state that was virtually all white," Sanders told reporters here under the wing of his campaign plane. "In 1988, I endorsed Jesse Jackson to become president of the United States. There were very, very, very few white public officials at that point, but I thought what he was saying made sense, I had the courage to do that."

Sanders finished by expressing confidence that his message would resonate with blacks and Latinos and said he's in a position to do very well in Nevada and beyond.

His campaign immediately followed up, with a press release pushing a video of Sanders endorsing Jackson that hit reporters' in-boxes before they'd even sat down on the plane.