LOS ANGELES — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination for the presidency–the first woman to do so in the history of the United States. She won three of six states participating in the primary on Tuesday.
Clinton won South Dakota, New Mexico, New Jersey and won the big prize of the night–California. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton received 1.94 million votes (55.8 percent) and Bernie Sanders got 1.5 million votes (43.2 percent) in the state of California. The Golden State has 475 total delegates.
The Democratic candidate has 2,058 delegates and 572 superdelegates not including California. She will add an additional 261 to that total from the Golden State, which brings her to 2,768.
“Thanks to you, we’ve reached a milestone,” Clinton said at a speech in Brooklyn. “Tonight’s victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible.”
Not so fast… Bernie Sanders says he isn’t giving up the fight just yet. He announced that he will be staying in the race in a speech at 10:45 p.m. PT inside a Santa Monica Airport hangar.
“We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C. and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia,” Sanders said to his supporters. “I know the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight…but we will continue to fight for every vote and for every delegate we can.”
The Democratic challenger has spoken to about 250,000 Californians during speeches and rallies over the last month. Sanders recently addressed 4,500 supporters at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego last weekend. His message of free public colleges and a $15 minimum wage has appealed to younger Millennial voters.
Sanders currently has 1,690 delegates and 47 superdelegates not including California. He will add an additional 195 delegates from the Golden State, which brings him to 1,866.
Then, he plans on convincing so-called superdelegates to vote for him instead of Clinton. A total of 2,383 delegates are needed to win so Sanders has to convince just over half of Clinton’s superdelegates to change their mind.
If Sanders is successful, that means there would be a contested convention. Delegates would be offered a second chance to vote again on a new ballot.
President Obama has invited Bernie Sanders for a White House visit on Thursday.
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