Two days before today’s primaries in California and five other states, Mr Sanders repeated his pledge not to concede even if Mrs Clinton acquires enough delegates to reach 2,383, the threshold for securing the Democratic nomination for presidential candidate.
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Heading into Tuesday’s primaries, the former first lady led Sanders 2,383 – the amount needed for the nomination – to 1,569 in the overall delegate count, including by a 571 to 48 margin in support from superdelegates.
According to Associated Press (AP) and United States networks, 68-year-old Clinton claimed exactly the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination against her rival Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
New Jersey and California are the biggest prizes up for grabs Tuesday, with Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota also holding contests.
She told a cheering crowd she was on the brink of a “historic, unprecedented moment”, but said there was still work to be done in the six states to vote on Tuesday.
“We’re going to fight hard for every single vote”, Clinton declared. She would follow Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, if she wins.
The White House and the Clinton backers are hoping the moment will serve as something of reset button, ending the surprisingly long and contentious primary and refocusing Democrats on the history in the making – Clinton would be the first female, major party nominee – and the job of defeating Trump.
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. Trump, for his part, portrays Clinton as a liar who can’t be trusted.
The contests give Trump an opening to manage the unpleasantness on a big scale – and again point out that he’s the one who has received millions of votes and earned the 1,237 delegates required to win GOP presidential nomination. The Golden State’s delegates are distributed proportionately, meaning a marginal victory by either candidate would do little to change the shape of the race – though a Sanders win would be a blow to the Clinton campaign’s morale.
Even a strong showing for Sanders in California and elsewhere would likely still leave him well short in the delegate count, but it could give him more motivation to fight on to the Democratic convention in July.
The majority of superdelegates have always sided with the victor of the most pledged delegates, which in this election is Clinton.
He left it to spokesman Michael Briggs to warn against a “rush to judgment” and point out that Clinton’s status as presumptive nominee is dependent on superdelegates who could still change their minds. Sure, the California primary is mostly a formality at this point, but a combination of Bernie Sanders’ unwillingness to admit defeat and the gendered expectations that Clinton not seem too eager to declare victory had made it so there was a widespread, tacit agreement to wait until after California before officially declaring her the victor. Now, for many – including young women – it is almost unremarkable that a woman could lead the free world, a shift that Clinton noted in 2008 and linked to her historic first run.
While the Democratic convention is not until July, Clinton has a commanding lead in pledged delegates.
Hillary Clinton wants to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination.
The expected Obama endorsement, reported by The New York Times and CNN, would come as a welcome boost to Clinton and to Democrats concerned that the party needs to turn its attention fully to campaigning against Republican nominee Donald Trump. She has also survived multiple political crises by drawing on nearly supernatural resilience and is renowned for her mastery of policy.
Yesterday, she pointed to her 2008 decision to unite the party and said Democrats needed to do the same to take on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. On Wednesday, he’s due in New York City to address donors at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Clinton’s home state.
“A vote always counts, even if your candidate doesn’t win”, said Juan Alvarez, 48, a maintenance supervisor at an apartment complex in San Jose. Now the inevitable narrative will be that Sanders totally had a chance to woo those superdelegates away, but the AP’s story will instead scare them off from hearing the mind-blowing last minute pitch to vote Sanders.
That brings us to Sanders’ Plan B: superdelegates.
Neither Bill nor Hillary Clinton have ever lost a primary in California – and she would prefer not to end that streak Tuesday. “It’s like an anointment”.
Grayson’s comments come during an increasingly bitter Democratic primary battle with fellow U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy of Jupiter and Miami labor lawyer Pam Keith.
Yet Clinton showed no signs of limping into the general election as she approached the milestone, leaving Sanders behind and focusing on lacerating Trump.
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Both Clinton and Trump have sought to widen the current gender divide, campaigning both on policy and personality. “They include more than 400 superdelegates who endorsed Secretary Clinton 10 months before the first caucuses and primaries and long before any other candidate was in the race”.
