Hillary Clinton has reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, the Associated Press reported on Monday.
Clinton, whose first failed attempt at the Democratic nomination ended almost eight years to the day, has now become the first woman ever to win the nomination of a major political party in American history.
“According to the news we are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment but we still have work to do don’t we? We have six elections tomorrow and we’re going to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in California,” she told a cheering crowd in Long Beach California just moments after AP made the call.
Clinton won 1,812 pledged delegates in primaries and caucuses, according to the AP count. She also has the support of 571 superdelegates.
The AP surveyed all 714 superdelegates repeatedly in the past seven months, with only 95 superdelegates remaining publicly uncommitted.
Though superdelegates will not formally cast their vote until the party’s July convention in Philadelphia, those tallied have told the AP they will “unequivocally” support Clinton.
Following the results in Puerto Rico on Sunday, the AP has concluded there is no possible path for Vermont senator Bernie Sanders to reach the 2,383 needed to win the nomination.
Not long after AP made the call, NBC also called the race for the former secretary of state.
Even so, Sanders vowed to continue his fight until the convention, promising to make the case to superdelegates that he is better positioned to beat Trump in the general election. Superdelegates can still change their minds. But since the AP began its survey last year, no superdelegates have switched their support from Clinton to Sanders.
In a statement Tuesday night, Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs reiterated that message, blaming the media’s “rush to judgment” for the decision.
“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,” Sanders’ campaign spokesman Michael Biggs said in a statement on Monday, adding, “Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump.”