US Senator Bernie Sanders will address his supporters in a video announcement due out on Thursday night in the US.  But even though all of the primary elections are over and Hillary Clinton is the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, Mr. Sanders is not going to pull the plug on his campaign.

"No, he's not ending it," said Sanders' campaign spokesman Michael Briggs, suggesting that the address will deal with keeping alive priorities such as raising the minimum wage and getting big money out of politics.  "We're working our way through that, how to go forward on that front.  This message to supporters is going to be a lot broader than that," he added.

What also isn't clear is how much clout Sen. Sanders will have to push his agenda.  Polls are showing American voters swinging to Hillary Clinton as the only viable alternative to Republican candidate and increasingly unhinged fascist demagogue Donald Trump.  While social media is rife with "Bernie or bust" messages, several major polls show their influence is negligible because Hillary is ahead of Trump by double-digits. 

And if Sanders is trying to maintain a position of strength to influence the Democratic Party platform, he may have waited too long:  The first test of his ability to help down-ballot candidates has come up short.  Sanders endorsed Lucie Flores, who ran for congress in Nevada's Fourth District, but she lost the race for the nomination by 14 points to an establishment Democratic candidate.  It turns out that it's easier to bring motivated, neophyte voters to higher profile national races than to get them to know their own home districts.