Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday declared herself the Democratic Party nominee for US president, embracing her role in history as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House.
The former first lady, US senator and secretary of state celebrated her victory in the nominating race over US Senator Bernie Sanders at a raucous event with supporters in Brooklyn, New York, where Clinton placed her achievement in the context of the long history of the women’s rights movement.
“Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone,” Clinton said in a speech. “We all owe so much to who came before.”
Photo: EPA
Clinton, 68, spoke shortly after beating Sanders in New Jersey’s nominating contest, expanding her lead in the delegates needed to clinch the nomination and setting up a five-month general election campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election.
New Jersey was one of six states holding contests on Tuesday, including California, where the latest reports showed Clinton leading by double-digit percentage points over Sanders.
In her speech, Clinton appealed to Sanders supporters to join her and said the Democratic Party had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanized younger voters.
Clinton edged Sanders out, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, US President Barack Obama.
However, Sanders showed no interest in ending his upstart candidacy, telling cheering supporters in California that he would go on campaigning through next Tuesday’s primary in the District of Columbia and carry his political crusade — although not necessarily his campaign — to the convention next month.
“We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington DC,” he said. “And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”
In a fundraising e-mail to supporters, Clinton declared her campaign had broken “one of the highest, hardest glass ceilings.”
On Twitter, she said: “To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want — even president. Tonight is for you.”
Clinton’s race against Trump, 69, will unfold amid an ongoing investigation of her use of a personal e-mail server while secretary of state.
Opinion polls show the controversy has hurt Clinton’s ratings on honesty and trustworthiness.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton leads Trump by 10 percentage points nationally as they launch their general election battle, little changed from a week ago.
Clinton now must try to unify the party and win over Sanders supporters, who booed lustily in California when Sanders congratulated her on her victories on Tuesday.
A Sanders campaign spokesman castigated what he said was the media’s “rush to judgement” after The Associated Press and NBC reported on Monday night that Clinton had clinched the number of delegates needed to win the nomination.
Clinton’s victories on Tuesday ensured she will have a lead in the pledged delegates won in nominating contests. Clinton clinched the nomination with the added support of superdelegates, party leaders who are free to back any candidate.
Steven Acosta, a 47-year-old teacher living in Los Angeles, voted for Clinton on Tuesday, saying that was partly because he believed she stood a better chance of winning in November.
“I like what Bernie Sanders says and I agree with almost everything that he says,” Acosta said. “The problem is that I think Republicans would really unify ... even more against him.”
Trump, who became his party’s presumptive nominee last month, outlasting 16 Republican challengers, is struggling to get the party’s leaders solidly behind him after a bitter primary campaign during which he made a series of controversial statements directed at Muslims, Latinos, women and disabled people.
On Tuesday night he addressed a crowd of supporters in New York, welcoming Sanders supporters “with open arms” should they decide to support him and declaring a new phase of the campaign had begun.
“I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week, and we are going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons,” he said.
“I think you are going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. I wonder if the press will want to attend,” he said.
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