Politics

Hillary Clinton Projected to Be Democratic Presidential Nominee

June 6th 2016

According to a delegate count and survey of superdelegates from the Associated Press, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton secured enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

This marks the first time in U.S. history that a woman has become the presumptive nominee in a presidential political primary. Clinton's opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, currently has 1,521 pledged delegates and just under 50 superdelegates.

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"An Associated Press count of pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses and a survey of party insiders known as superdelegates shows Clinton with the overall support of the required 2,383 delegates," the AP reports. "Now the presumptive nominee, she will formally accept her party's nomination in July at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia."

hillary-clintonAP/Andrew Harnik - apimages.com

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook had this to say about the AP projection, but it is not the official campaign statement:

"This is an important milestone, but there are six states that are voting Tuesday, with millions of people heading to the polls, and Hillary Clinton is working to earn every vote. We look forward to Tuesday night, when Hillary Clinton will clinch not only a win in the popular vote, but also a majority of pledged delegates."

The projection comes one day before six states, including the delegate-rich state of California, which Clinton is expected to win based on recent polls. Sanders campaign has indicated that it would continue to fight, arguing that superdelegates may reverse their vote and alter the course of the election, but a campaign spokesperson also said on Monday that Sanders would return to his home state of Vermont to "reassess" his bid after the primary.

bernie-sandersAP/Keith Srakocic - apimages.com

In a statement, Sanders condemned the AP projection, writing that "[i]t is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgement [sic], 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." 

Sanders continued

"Secretary Clinton does not have and will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to secure the nomination. She will be dependent on superdelegates who do not vote until July 25and who can change their minds between now and then. 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. Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump.”

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