Hillary Clinton Becomes First Woman to Clinch the Presidential Nomination

On Tuesday night it became all but official: Hillary Clinton at last became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and the first woman to win a presidential nomination for a major political party. Out of the six states that voted on Tuesday, Clinton won four.

”Tonight’s victory is not about one person, it belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible,” she said in a speech at a rally in Brooklyn on Tuesday night.

Clinton won California, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota, while Bernie Sanders won Montana and North Dakota.

Clinton has already had a long career in politics–as first lady, senator, secretary of state, and two times as a candidate for president. And it hasn’t been without obstacles, ranging from her husband’s alleged affairs and the Lewinsky scandal in 1998, the eight hour questioning over her handling of the Benghazi terror attacks in 2012 by the Republicans (which gave birth to the GIF below), and most recently the use of her private email server for classified State Department business.

Well this is just a tremendous GIF. #BenghaziCommittee pic.twitter.com/Bnpi6rcQ43

— Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) October 22, 2015

One big issue for Clinton has been falling numbers in surveys about her trustworthiness. In a national poll in March, only 37 percent of participants said they think she is an honest and trustworthy person, which is a notable low. But that didn’t stop her from securing the nomination.

What’s next?

The next step for Clinton is to try and win over the Bernie supporters, which is easier said than done considering his supporters don’t seem to trust her. Sanders has done better in the primary than many had dared to hope for, and many supporters have said they would rather vote for Trump than for Clinton, perhaps in an attempt to push Clinton further to the left. Either way, she may need Sanders’ help and endorsement to win over some young liberals that would prefer him in office.

Let’s keep making history, together.https://t.co/7IIvZVW3HY

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

Reports came Monday night from the AP that Clinton had won the nomination, based on votes from superdelegates who actually haven’t cast their votes yet, since that will officially happen at the Democratic National Convention in July. This upset Sanders supporters, and his advisers worried the news would affect the voter turnout on the Tuesday. The possibility that superdelegates can change their minds is what has kept Sanders’ side going, and his campaign manager Michael Briggs said in a statement on Monday:

It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgment, 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.

On Tuesday night, Sanders still pledged to stay in the race until the very end, and thanked all his supporters for being part of a political revolution. The next, and last, primary election will be held in Washington D.C. on June 14.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.