There is a Democratic establishment, I think it's fair to say that most of them probably don't like Sanders. It's not fair to say they're scheming to rob him. Hell, it's not even fair to say they're some monolithic organization following a singular will.
The Times has interviewed 93 party officials all of them superdelegates, who could have a say on the nominee at the convention and found overwhelming opposition to handing the Vermont senator the nomination if he arrived with the most delegates but fell short of a majority.
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In a reflection of the establishments wariness about Mr. Sanders, only nine of the 93 superdelegates interviewed said that Mr. Sanders should become the nominee purely on the basis of arriving at the convention with a plurality, if he was short of a majority.
That anxiety has led even superdelegates to suggest ideas that sound ripped from the pages of a political drama.
In recent weeks, Democrats have placed a steady stream of calls to Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who opted against running for president nearly a year ago, suggesting that he can emerge as a white knight nominee at a brokered convention in part on the theory that he may carry his home state in a general election.
Others are urging former President Barack Obama to get involved to broker a truce either among the four moderate candidates or between the Sanders and establishment wings, according to three people familiar with those conversations.
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Others in the party view Mr. Sanders as such an existential threat that they see stopping him from winning the nomination as less risky than a public convention fight. Many feared that putting Mr. Sanders on the top of the ticket could cost Democrats the political gains of the Trump era, a period when the party won control of the House, took governors mansions in deep red states and flipped statehouses across the country.
Bernie seems to have declared war on the Democratic Party and its caused panic in the House ranks, said Representative Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, a supporter of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York. Private polling of Mr. Gottheimers northern New Jersey district, for example, shows a double-digit gap in the approval ratings of Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders.
Representative Veronica Escobar of Texas said that if Mr. Sanders arrived at the convention with 40 percent of the delegates, it wouldnt be enough to convince her to vote for him on the second ballot.
If 60 percent is not with Bernie Sanders, I think that says something, I really do, she said.