Clinton secures Democratic party nomination
US Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has won the number of delegates required to secure the party’s nomination. The Associated Press declared the former First Lady as the presumptive nominee after asking undecided superdelegates which candidate they were supporting. In its survey, AP confirmed that Clinton had enough support to reach the 2,383-delegate threshold needed for the nomination. The announcement came on the eve of six major primaries in Tuesday, including big states like California and New Jersey. Winning the Puerto Rico primary on Sunday put Clinton 19 delegates away from becoming the nominee.
The former secretary of state, however, was not too excited about theAP report, saying that there is still work left to do. “We are at the brink of a historic moment but we still have work to do,” she told at a campaign event on Monday. Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, echoed the candidate, saying that while the AP call was “an important milestone” Clinton did not intend to declare victory until Tuesday night, when she “will clinch not only a win in the popular vote, but also the majority of pledged delegates.”
Meanwhile, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who is running against Clinton in the White House race took a dim view of AP’s math, saying that he would lobby Clinton superdelegates to shift their support to him by arguing that he is the party’s best chances to defeat the presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. “It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgment, are ignoring the Democratic National Committee’s clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer,” Michael Briggs, a Sanders spokesman, said in a statement.
To prove that he really stands a chance against Clinton, Sanders needs to bolster his campaign scoring a victory in California. The latest polls show Sanders and Clinton in a virtual tie in California, the country’s most populous state. A loss in California for Clinton would make a sour and deflating end to her primary campaign possible.
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