Hillary Clinton brought a close to the presidential primary season with a win Tuesday in the nation’s capital and a meeting with dispatched rival Bernie Sanders, hoping to set a tone of Democratic unity heading into next month’s party convention in Philadelphia.
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Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton has finished the U.S. primaries with a comprehensive win over her rival Bernie Sanders in Washington DC. Sanders has staked out positions to the left of Clinton on a series of issues, including his stances on providing universal health care, raising the minimum wage to US$15 an hour and offering free college tuition. “Sanders and Clinton agreed to continue working to develop a progressive agenda that addresses the needs of working families and the middle class and adopting a progressive platform for the Democratic National Convention”, the statement said.
“We congratulate both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for finishing strong today in the District of Columbia after energising voters across the country with smart, substantive primary campaigns worthy of the American people”, said Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Before polls closed in Washington, Sanders vowed again to do all he can to prevent the presumptive Republican presidential nominee from reaching the White House but he declined to endorse Clinton.
Clinton, who will be the first woman nominated for president by a major US political party, captured a majority of the pledged delegates elected in primaries and caucuses as well as the support of most super-delegates, the party leaders and elected officials who automatically attend the convention and can vote for whichever candidate they want.
“Sen Sanders took time to talk to us about his experiences”.
Later that day, Sanders, who trails Clinton by more than 500 superdelegates, told reporters in Vermont: “We’re taking our campaign to the convention”.
A number of his colleagues have predicted Sanders would return to the Senate with more clout due to his energetic presidential run against Clinton.
Sanders and his supporters remain bitter at Wasserman Schultz, believing she lined the party up against them from an early stage in an attempt to pave the way for a Clinton nomination. He called for statehood for the District of Columbia over the weekend, and did not even mention Clinton at his rally in D.C. last week.
“The American people are hurting, and they are hurting badly”, Sanders said during a news conference outside a campaign office off Capitol Hill. Continuing through the final contest allows Sanders to make good on a pledge to campaign until all votes in the Democratic primary were cast, though his ability to overtake Clinton has been all but nil for weeks.
Sanders has said that his main goal is to ensure that Trump is not elected.
“I think (Clinton) thinks we can only make small changes”, said Maggie Murphy, 26, a Washington resident who works at a non-profit.
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“He was very clear that he thought there were things that we had to focus on and do better and I don’t think it was met with any disagreement in the room”, she said. Early results on Tuesday night with 41 per cent of votes counted showed Clinton notched up an easy win, leading Sanders by 57 percentage points, Xinhua news agency reported.
