WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton has commitments from the number of delegates needed to become the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president, and will be first woman to top the ticket of a major U.S. political party.
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.
It was a victory that arrived nearly eight years to the day after she conceded her first White House campaign to Barack Obama and famously noted her inability to “shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling.”
Now the presumptive nominee, she will formally accept her party’s nomination in July at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders’ campaign says Clinton’s nomination as the Democratic Party’s presidential pick is dependent on superdelegates who can still change their minds between now and the July convention.
Sanders’ spokesman Michael Briggs says the campaign’s job is to convince the superdelegates that the Vermont senator is “by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump.” He says calling the Democratic contest before superdelegates formally vote at the convention is a “rush to judgment.”
