News

People Understand How Historic This Is

by Lauren Barbato

It's happening: On Monday night, several news outlets announced that Hillary Clinton received enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination, one day before primaries in California and five other states are scheduled to take place. The Associated Press first made the call Monday, with CBS Politics and NBC News also following suit. Clinton needed 2,383 delegates — including the contentious superdelegates — to secure the Democratic Party's nomination. And people are responding to the news with full force.

Although the AP announced that Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee, she still hasn't officially won her party's nomination. Her challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has yet to drop out of the race, and plans to take on the six primaries scheduled for Tuesday. Even Clinton is acting cautious. Following the AP announcement on Monday, the former secretary of state tweeted, "We're flattered, @AP, but we've got primaries to win."

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, reacted the same way. He quote-tweeted Clinton and added, "What she said. Let's have a great turnout tomorrow."

Still, Clinton, like many Americans who support her, acknowledged that she may be about to make history — something she couldn't do in 2008. "We are on the brink of a historic moment," Clinton tweeted, "but we still have work to do."

A lot of Clinton supporters echoed her on social media, worried that Sanders could still make a big splash come Tuesday. Many Clinton supporters are still urging registered voters to hit up the ballot box and pledge their support for the not-quite-yet nominee.

However, most of the responses across social media are supportive and ecstatic, essentially exclaiming, "we did it!" American women seem to be breathing a collective sigh of relief that a woman politician may finally receive the presidential nomination for a major political. Just like Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, this is history in the making — and we're watching it unfold.

Of course, there were a slew of Sanders supporters — and non-Democratic supporters — urging Clinton fans in California and New Jersey to stay home on Tuesday, so Sanders could win those coveted states.

Sanders only trails Clinton by several hundred delegates, so the progressive senator is eying a much-needed win in California to stay relevant. However, Sanders barely has 50 superdelegates to his name. Could he overtake Clinton and still pull out a nomination this summer? Well, Donald Trump is our almost-certain Republican nominee, so in this election cycle, it seems like anything really is possible in American politics.

But the truly impossible seems more likely at this point: We may have our first woman presidential nominee on a major party ticket, and make history just eight short years after President Obama's campaign.