Nicole Gaudiano

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders’ campaign is preparing for a fight over the Democratic Party platform, even as he inches closer to a formal endorsement of his primary rival Hillary Clinton.

The Vermont senator’s campaign is backing a dozen amendments to the platform draft when it goes to the full 187-member Platform Committee for final approval in Orlando on Friday and Saturday.

Among them are measures calling for a $15 minimum wage, a ban on fracking and a tax on carbon, but the main focus will be on blocking the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, a proposed 12-nation trade pact that Sanders says will hurt U.S. workers and the environment.

Sanders readies for platform fight on trade

Sanders has said he is prepared to bring amendments to the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia if the party doesn’t take more progressive stances in its platform. That seems unlikely now, given his confirmation that he is preparing to endorse Clinton.

“We have got to do everything that we can to defeat Donald Trump and elect Hillary Clinton,” he said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg’s Albert R. Hunt for PBS’ Charlie Rose program.

Sanders on Wednesday lauded Clinton’s expanded education proposal, including new measures to eliminate college tuition for working families and reduce debt. But other sticking points between the campaigns remain.

Bernie Sanders applauds Hillary Clinton's education plan

Bernie Sanders confirms Clinton endorsement talks

“We are continuing to have conversations with Secretary Clinton’s campaign and look forward to reaching a result that everybody’s happy with," said Michael Briggs, Sanders' spokesman. "Sen. Sanders has been on record that one of the issues that he and Secretary Clinton were interested in exploring further was how to make health care available to more Americans.”

Trade is another top issue for Sanders. His campaign solicited signatures for a petition supporting his trade amendment via email, texts and social media. More than 700,000 signatures were collected by his campaign and organizations representing progressives, trade unions and environmentalists.

“Our campaign is doing everything that we can to see that the TPP — which I consider to be a disastrous trade agreement — does not get to the floor of the House and the Senate for the lame-duck session,” Sanders said in an interview.

Last month, Clinton’s supporters on the platform drafting committee rejected an amendment by a Sanders supporter to oppose a vote on TPP in Congress, even though Clinton remains opposed to the deal. Her campaign has not reacted to the vote, but Sanders has said Clinton’s representatives on the committee worried they would “embarrass” President Obama, who has pushed for the TPP, by supporting the amendment.

Jim Hightower, a columnist, progressive political activist, and author, will present the amendment, which states, "It is the policy of the Democratic Party that the Trans-Pacific Partnership must not get a vote in this Congress or in future sessions of Congress."

Hightower called the amendment “political Viagra to stiffen the spine of our party” and said it will save Obama from a greater embarrassment — the TPP potentially passing Congress.

“When you see a friend going off and doing something disastrous to himself or to others, you don’t avert your eyes,” said Hightower, former commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture. “You have an intervention. That’s what this is.”

The Obama administration must send implementing legislation to Congress for a vote before the TPP can take effect. The Sanders campaign believes it would be difficult for such legislation to pass before the election, when presidential candidates in both parties oppose it and members of Congress are running for re-election in districts hurt by trade, said Warren Gunnels, Sanders’ policy director.

The concern is that the Obama administration will seek an opportunity for passage during the lame duck session as lawmakers are about to retire and some who lost elections are perhaps looking to “cash out” with well-paying lobbying jobs with multinational corporations, he said.

“Fast track” legislation that passed last year to speed trade deals through Congress prevents lawmakers from amending the legislation or using parliamentary rules to block it. But if the Democratic Party takes a strong stand against the TPP in its platform, Gunnels said, it would be hard for the administration to go against the will of the party.

“It would be sending a very clear message to the administration that the Democratic Party does not want the administration to send that legislation to Congress,” he said.

Follow @ngaudiano on Twitter.