Does Hillary Clinton Have the Democratic Party Nomination?
On Monday evening, the Associated Press reported that Hillary Clinton has officially gotten the number of delegates that are necessary to secure the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Associated Press included the pledged delegates and its survey of unpledged delegates, known as superdelegates, in their count, which placed Clinton at the 2,383-delegate threshold that she needs to lock the nomination. Even though the official nomination will not be made until the Democratic National Convention in July, if this is accurate, Clinton will be the first woman to be a major party’s presidential nominee.
This news comes the day before the primaries in both California and New Jersey, where Sanders could end her primary campaign on a low note and has the potential to create an extremely close race.
“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,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement. “We look forward to Tuesday night, when Hillary Clinton will clinch not only a win in the popular vote, but also the majority of pledged delegates.”
While excited to hear the news, the former Secretary of State reassured her Twitter followers that the race was not over.
For the other candidate, the spokesperson for Bernie Sanders, Michael Briggs, is not too happy with the outlet counting unpledged delegates in an article, especially when they feel as though “Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against 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,” he said. “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 25 and 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.”
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)