Hillary Clinton was poised Tuesday to declare victory in the Democratic presidential primary, becoming the first woman in USA history to win the nomination of a major political party.
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Should Sanders pull off victory, however, in California, where he has been campaigning for weeks and which has a whopping 475 delegates to give, Clinton’s overall victory – should it hold – is likely to be soured by party dislocation and an ongoing fight. GOP leaders recoiled at Donald Trump’s comments about a Hispanic judge, with one senator even pulling his endorsement of the presumptive GOP nominee.
Paul Westendorf, a 53-year-old Sioux Falls resident who works in financial services, said he voted for Trump in the Republican primary but wished he had other viable options.
Now the Democrats’ presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton aimed for primary election victories in California and five other states Tuesday to send her into the general election with fresh momentum.
Hillary Clinton reached the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on the eve of Tuesday’s voting, according to an Associated Press tally.
And an initial discussion between Obama and Sanders on unifying the party appears to be in the cards.
“I have always lived in California”. “This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on any of us”, Clinton said during an emotional rally in Brooklyn, eight years to the day after she ended her first failed White House run.
“Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump”, said the statement. She was biting and sarcastic as she took on Trump, accusing him of wanting to win “by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds – and reminding us daily just how great he is”.
The implication, made clear by the headline of the piece (“Perfect End to Democratic Primary: Anonymous Superdelegates Declare Winner Through Media”), is that those superdelegates withheld their commitments until they saw a politically opportune moment. If she wins as a direct result of their backing, however, it will certainly push her to focus on the economic policies the Sanders campaign has focused on for the past 12 months.
Heading into Tuesday’s voting, Clinton has 1,812 pledged delegates and the support of 571 of the 714 superdelegates, according to the AP count.
“If a grand jury is empaneled, or if she were to be indicted before the convention, the Democrats would have to let her go”, Blakeman said in a Fox News interview. Another supporter, despite the fact that more people voted for Clinton than Sanders, said, “We have to start recognizing that in this country, everyone has a voice”.
The triumph came nearly eight years to the day since Clinton’s first White House bid was spectacularly thwarted by a charismatic young senator called Barack Obama.
“I’m left of Bernie Sanders, but I know that she’s the candidate that can possibly get something done”, Backer said. Still, Clinton is on the verge of the nomination after she dominated contests in the South and won large states, including NY and Pennsylvania. “We’re only getting started, and it’s going to be lovely”. Seven of the state’s nine Democratic superdelegates support Hillary Clinton, and two are uncommitted. “Those roles, and the thoughts you have about the images of the Clintons and where they stand in politics – maybe that does set the [gender] narrative aside a little bit”, Swers says. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, are also solidly in Clinton’s corner.
Top Clinton aides expect Sanders to take a few days after California to evaluate his campaign and what he does next. Rallying supporters at City College of San Francisco’s Mission Center, Sanders said Clinton’s voters were more reliable and he would need a large turnout among recently registered voters, independents and young people.
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He capped the day with a concert rally featuring singer Dave Matthews and then was traveling to Los Angeles on Tuesday for the primary. Speaking to reporters, Sanders said he planned to return to Vermont on Wednesday and “assess where we are” following the California results.
