On June 7, Bernie Sanders' insurgent campaign for the Democratic party's nomination effectively ended with a defeat in the California primary at the hands of Hillary Clinton. Almost a month later, the Vermont Senator still walks around with a very visible reminder that he has not officially dropped out of the race: His Secret Service protection.
In 2008, then-Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan testified that costs reached around $37,000 to $38,000 a day to protect each presidential candidate, and that number could rise to about $44,000 as the campaign "tempo" increased.
While the Secret Service declined to comment on how much that number is today, using $40,000 per day as a conservative estimate for how much it costs to protect a presidential candidate, Sanders has cost taxpayers about $1.1 million dollars since Clinton declared victory on June 7, as of July 5.
With the Democratic National Convention scheduled to kick off in Philadelphia on July 25, that could bring the total to about $1.9 million in Secret Service protection in between Clinton's presumptive nomination and the beginning of the formal nominating process.
Sanders has come close to admitting his campaign is all but over, telling NBC News that "it doesn't appear that I'm gonna be the nominee." Nevertheless, he has not formally conceded, preferring to technically remain an active candidate as he takes his delegates and progressive agenda to Philadelphia and a fight for his issues on the party's platform.
In between the end of the campaign trail and beginning of the convention, Sanders has returned to his regular work in the Senate. But he has drawn ire in Congress for continuing to walk around with a Secret Service entourage. One colleague in the Senate reportedly told CNN, very bluntly, that "Bernie's on an ego kick."
This cycle has already seen a record appropriation of funds for the protection of presidential candidates. All told, the Secret Service was allocated $203.68 million in the 2016 fiscal year for presidential candidate protection, almost double the $113 appropriated for presidential candidate protection in 2012.
Sanders' communications director Michael Briggs declined to comment on matters of security.