Hillary Clinton yesterday secured 2,383 delegates, becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee and the first woman at the top of the presidential ticket, the Associated Press reported.
At a campaign stop in Long Beach, California, Clinton responded to the AP tally, telling a revved-up crowd, “I’ve got to tell you, according to the news, we are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment, but we still have work to do, don’t we?”
She said that her campaign planned “to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in California,” a sentiment she later echoed on Twitter.
We’re flattered, @AP, but we've got primaries to win. CA, MT, NM, ND, NJ, SD, vote tomorrow! https://t.co/8t3GpZqc1U
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 7, 2016
Clinton’s cautious excitement reflects the neck-and-neck primary in California today. Her surprisingly sticky rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, trails her tightly in the polls, and he has also said earlier that he intends to stick it out until the July convention in Philadelphia.
The Associated Press announced Clinton’s 2,383-delegate breakthrough after extensively surveying superdelegates, finding that 571 of these unbound delegates had committed to backing Clinton.
Sanders has said he will attempt to woo these unbound superdelegates away from Clinton.
“Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump,” a Sanders spokesman said in a statement last night.
Sanders warned reporters yesterday against conjecture about his next step.
“You’re asking me to speculate. Let me just talk to you after the primary here in California,” Sanders said. “Let’s assess where we are after tomorrow before we make statements based on speculation.”
California has 548 delegates up for grabs today, and the margin between the two candidates falls well within the margin of error. A loss for Hillary would prove embarrassing while also giving Sanders more justification to plod on toward a convention fight.
— Jillian Kay Melchior writes for Heat Street and is a fellow for the Steamboat Institute.
