A top aide to Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 Biden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security MORE on Wednesday said that the White House hopeful would be the Democrats' best bet against Donald Trump Donald John TrumpObama calls on Senate not to fill Ginsburg's vacancy until after election Planned Parenthood: 'The fate of our rights' depends on Ginsburg replacement Progressive group to spend M in ad campaign on Supreme Court vacancy MORE.

“He’s going to have momentum going into the convention,” campaign manager Jeff Weaver said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360" Wednesday. "We’re going to go forward and we’re going to let the voters vote. He’s going to enter the convention with a big head of steam coming in there.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The positions that he holds are going to be popular with a much broader base of people. He’s the one who’s not only going to be able to keep the White House but help elect Democrats up and down the ticket."

Weaver said Sanders is the strongest weapon Democrats have against the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

“Bernie is a much stronger candidate than Secretary Clinton against Donald Trump,” he said. "The polling has been consistent for months now.

“He does very, very well with independents. In open primaries we’ve seen, empirically, that he gets 65-70 percent of independents to Secretary Clinton.”

Weaver added that Sanders seemingly has mass appeal in the remaining Democratic presidential primaries.

“Next week is West Virginia, where he seems to be doing very well,” he said of the primary next Tuesday.

“Bernie Sanders is doing very well in polling in California,” Weaver added of the primary next month. "There are 475 pledged delegates in California. You can eat substantially into that lead just in California alone with a strong performance.”

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhat Senate Republicans have said about election-year Supreme Court vacancies Bipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death Trump carries on with rally, unaware of Ginsburg's death MORE leads Sanders by roughly 5 points nationwide, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls. The former secretary of State also has 1,683 pledged delegates to Sanders’s 1,362, and a lead with unbound superdelegates; 2,382 total delgates are necessary for avoiding a contested Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.