Hillary Clinton captured the Democratic White House nomination hours before Tuesday’s last major primaries of 2016, according to US delegate counts, taking a monumental step toward becoming America’s first female commander-in-chief.
Passing the milestone of 2,383 delegates secures Clinton’s status as the presumptive nominee, and marks a dramatic political resurgence for a highly experienced but controversial candidate who lost to Barack Obama in their 2008 battle to be the Democratic standard-bearer.
This time the 68-year-old former secretary of state survived an extraordinarily strong grassroots campaign by her party rival Bernie Sanders and is set to go head-to-head with Republican real estate tycoon Donald Trump in an unprecedented showdown for the White House.
But Sanders was not ready to capitulate, insisting the Democratic nominee will not be chosen until delegates vote at the party’s national convention in late July.
And while her campaign acknowledged as “an important milestone” the US network tallies that pushed her beyond the magic number, Clinton said the Democratic race was not yet over.
“We are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment,” she told a rally in Long Beach, California.
“But we still have work to do, don’t we?” she said, referring to Tuesday’s primaries in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota.
“We have six elections tomorrow and are going to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in California.”
The capital Washington rounds out the nominating contests when it votes on June 14.
Clinton mounted a hectic campaign push in California, keen to finish strong and end any argument for Sanders to remain in the race, as he has pledged to do until the Democratic convention.
“It’s not over until it’s over,” Clinton told reporters at a community center in Compton, near Los Angeles, as she pleaded for supporters to vote Tuesday. Agency report
