Hillary Clinton greeted her supporters before making her victory speech at a rally in Brooklyn, New York, on June 7.
On the evening of June 7, 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to become the presidential nominee of a major political party in the United States. She won that night’s primaries in California, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota. After these victories, she had more than the 2,383 delegates needed to win the Democratic Party’s nomination. The nomination won’t be made official until the delegates cast their final vote at the Democratic National Convention. For now, Clinton is the party’s presumptive, or likely, nominee. It’s almost certain that she will be up against Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, in the presidential election on November 8.
Hillary Clinton has been a trailblazer in American politics for many years now. As First Lady under her husband Bill Clinton’s presidency, she headed a task force to come up with a plan to provide universal health care for all Americans. In 2001, she became the first former U.S. First Lady to hold public office when she was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York. She next became the third woman to hold the position of secretary of state when President Barack Obama appointed her to his Cabinet in 2009. She is currently the only former First Lady to have served in a President’s Cabinet.
In 2008, while still serving as a U.S. Senator, Clinton had run against then-Senator Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. She dropped out of the race when it was clear that he had won a majority of the delegates. Clinton served as secretary of state for President Obama until 2013. In April 2015, she formally announced that she would run for President again.
Among the 2,811 delegates that Clinton has currently won in the presidential primaries, 591 of those are superdelegates. Superdelegates are unelected delegates who are allowed to change their vote at the Democratic National Convention. The delegates that the candidates win in the state primaries are pledged delegates. These delegates cannot change their vote at the convention.
Because the superdelegates could possibly change their minds about who they vote for, Bernie Sanders has decided to stay in the race. Sanders, a U.S. Senator from Vermont, has been Clinton’s toughest competitor in seeking the party’s nomination. He currently has 1,879 delegates. To win the nomination at this stage, he would have to change the minds of more than 500 superdelegates.
Meanwhile, Clinton has switched her focus from the primary race to devote more time to campaigning against Donald Trump. November’s election will be here before you know it!
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