Tuesday’s primaries are happening in New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Montana and California, and will result in the distribution of almost 700 pledged delegates.
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But Bernie Sanders is pushing head, hoping to win California.
Clinton and her husband have barnstormed across California at a furious pace in recent days – seeking to avoid yet another humiliating defeat by Sanders on the same night she should easily win the delegates needed to go past the 2,383 mark and clinch the nomination.
Both Clinton and Sanders spent Monday in California, the biggest prize among the six states voting on Tuesday.
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign rally in Lynwood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 6, 2016. “I know my bishop supports her 110 percent, but I don’t know”, Vashti Gibson said.
The former secretary of state neared the brink of victory with a strong win on Sunday in the island territory of Puerto Rico, one day after the US Virgin Islands voted overwhelmingly for her.
Clinton has 1 812 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses, and Sanders has 1 521. A win in the Golden State just makes things that much more awkward for the still-uncommitted superdelegates: back the candidate with the majority of the overall vote, ignoring the Sanders surge; or back the candidate who’s been the favorite of voters dating back to the March 22 primaries, and ignore the outcome of the 29 previous contests? Obama was formally nominated at the party’s convention in August.
“Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump”, the campaign said in a statement.
Clinton’s race against Trump, 69, will unfold as she faces an ongoing investigation of her use of a personal email server while secretary of state.
Clinton will nearly certainly clinch the nomination earlier that day by winning the New Jersey primary.
The frontrunner is all but assured of locking in her party’s nomination, a monumental step towards fulfilling a dream of returning to the White House as commander in chief, 16 years after serving as first lady to president Bill Clinton.
“We have our work cut out for us”, said Representative Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach, California, who was one of the few Democrats in the House of Representatives to remain neutral in the race.
“People right now are talking if Bernie doesn’t get the nomination, they are deregistering as Democrats”, said Susan Hartley, 71, a lawyer from Northern California, who was part of the noisy throng of thousands at a Sanders rally in an aircraft hangar in Santa Monica.
Clinton also harshly attacked Donald Trump, 69, her presumptive Republican rival in the November 8 presidential election, for using divisive rhetoric that belittled women, Muslims and immigrants. The threat of a lawsuit is what finally allowed the Sanders campaign access again. “All of this attention is bringing our voters out, which is what we always like to see”, Dupuis said.
Two weeks before the primary, Sanders criticized a rescue deal, negotiated by U.S. House leaders and the Obama administration, as having colonialist overtones. She energized Democrats with a blistering speech last week challenging Trump’s qualifications for the presidency, reassuring supporters that she’s prepared for a bruising campaign against the unpredictable businessman.
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But Clinton vowed not to repeat the failings of her 2008 campaign and focused early on winning delegates, hiring help from Obama’s old team before launching her campaign. “I can’t wait for a female president”.
