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Hillary Clinton has secured enough delegates to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, the Associated Press reported Monday. Clinton will be the first woman to be a major political party's nominee.
The news agency said she secured enough commitments from superdelegates — party insiders who can support who they like for president at any time — to put her over the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch.
Clinton and her campaign on Monday night did not claim victory ahead of the primary states still to vote on Tuesday.
"We are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment," Clinton told voters in California, shortly after the AP's announcement.
"We have six elections tomorrow and we are going to fight hard for every single vote," she said.
The comments mirrored those of her campaign manager, Robby Mook, just minutes before. "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," he wrote in an emailed 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."
Clinton tweeted that she was "flattered" on Monday night before appearing onstage.
The Sanders campaign disputed the AP's count on Monday, vowing instead to fight on to the Democratic National Convention and to persuade superdelegates that Bernie Sanders is the right candidate. Spokesman Michael Briggs put out the following statement:
“It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgement, 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.
“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.
“Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump.”
The Democrats have two kinds of delegates. The first, pledged delegates, are apportioned based on the results of primaries and caucuses — Clinton currently leads Bernie Sanders by a nearly insurmountable number of pledged delegates (her 1,812 to his 1,512).
The second kind, which are referred to as superdelegates, are comprised of Democratic officials and insiders, and may vote as they please. Clinton also leads Sanders in superdelegates (571 to 48).
The Associated Press and others reported that Clinton has secured the commitments of enough superdelegates for the nomination. (This is not unusual; in 2008, Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination with a combination.) It is considered highly unlikely that Sanders will be able to persuade enough superdelegates to overcome the gap in both pledged delegates and superdelegates that separate him and Clinton.
Check out a preview of this week's No One Knows Anything, BuzzFeed's politics podcast — which is all about the end of the Democratic primary and recorded in California.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates and follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter.
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