With one day left until the New Hampshire primary, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders holds a "Get Out the Vote" rally in Nashua.

Advertisement Sanders cuts staff by two-thirds as focus shifts to remaining contests WMUR learns staff was informed of bad news in mandatory conference call Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is cutting about two-thirds of its staff as he focuses on the final primaries, especially California in June, WMUR has confirmed.Amid calls that he withdraw from the race, Sanders has refused. But the staff cuts are substantial.Kurt Ehrenberg, political director of Sanders’ New Hampshire campaign, told WMUR in an interview Wednesday night that national campaign manager Jeff Weaver led what Ehrenberg called a ”mandatory all-staff conference call” at 5 p.m. to deliver the news.“He talked briefly about how hard it is to tell people this,” Ehrenberg said. “He didn’t name anybody, so people will get called by their supervisors.”Ehrenberg, the lone Sanders staffer remaining in the Granite State, the site of Sanders’ first primary victory, said that he was still on the staff as of earlier this evening, working primarily on matters related to the state’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention.Sanders won the New Hampshire primary over Hillary Clinton by a margin of 60 percent to 38 percent, but Clinton, after winning four of five contests on Tuesday, has amassed 2,164 of the 2,383 delegates needed to secure the Democratic presidential nomination, while Sanders has won 1,355 delegates.Sources also told WMUR that the campaign staff peaked at more than 1,000 in late January, prior to the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. The staff cuts, sources said, will reduce the staff to between 325 and 350.Sanders addressed the cuts in a Wednesday interview with the New York Times, saying, “We want to win as many delegates as we can, so we do not need workers now in states around the country. 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 said that if he wins the nomination, all of the laid-off staffers will be rehired.In a statement issued by the Sanders campaign, spokesman Michael Briggs said:“Our campaign has now completed 80 percent of the primaries and caucuses. We look forward to winning in Indiana next Tuesday and in the few remaining states and territories holding primaries and caucuses in May and June.”“That means that we no longer require many of the loyal and dedicated state and national support staffers who helped us in places like New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and other states where the nominating contests have been completed.”“We will continue to have a strong and dedicated staff of more than 300 workers who are going to help us win in California and other contests still to come.”“This campaign believes that we have a path toward victory and we’re going to marshal our resources to do everything we can to win the Democratic nomination.”(WMUR political director Josh McElveen contributed to this report.)