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How People Are Describing Hillary's Nomination
After months of campaigning, Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, having attained the needed delegates and superdelegates. A Democrat needs 2,383 delegates to clinch the party's nomination, and Clinton exceeded that during Tuesday's primaries. There's been no shortage of reactions to Clinton's presumptive nomination. After all, those primaries made her candidacy more or less official: Clinton won in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, and, most importantly, California, sending her delegate count rocketing to 2,755. That makes her the first woman in the history of the U.S. to claim the presumed nomination of a major political party. Let that sink in for a moment.
I'll be totally honest with you: I'm a Clinton supporter, so I find this moment particularly exciting. But even if you're not a fan of Clinton as a politician, can we all appreciate that she's made history? Just like President Barack Obama's nomination eight years ago, this represents an incredible step forward. I am jazzed, friends.
And so are other people. At Bustle, we conducted an unofficial poll asking people to describe their reaction to Hillary Clinton's presumptive nomination using just one word. Here are the responses:
- Finally
- Look how far we've come
- Shit
- A woman
- Duh
- History
- Exciting
- Seneca Falls
- Vindicated
- Misled
- Womanhood
- Herstory
- Hero
- History
- Screwed
- YES
- Relief
- More like a sound of the glass ceiling being shattered!
- :dancing girl emoji:
That's a lot of feelings, so let's break them down and discuss the different themes that appear.
1. Pride in Women's Rights
The most prominent knee-jerk reaction? A sense of pride in Clinton's accomplishment as the first woman to be the presumptive nominee for a major political party. Responses like "Womanhood," "Herstory," "Glass ceiling being shattered," and "Look how far we've come" point at one of the reasons people are so excited about Clinton's nomination.
During Clinton's victory speech on Tuesday, she mentioned the Seneca Falls convention and called for equal pay for women. She also called out Donald Trump and Ted Cruz for their regressive policies regarding a woman's right to choice. Not only are other people thinking of Clinton's role in American history, but she's clearly thinking about it, too.
2. Confidence
Yes, Clinton is making history, but her politics run so much deeper than that. And looking at answers like "Duh" and "Yes" show that many people are excited about her candidacy based simply on merit — they're confident in her ability to lead the country for the next four to eight years.
3. Disappointment And Fear
Not everyone is going to be on your side, and some reactions to Clinton's presumptive nomination showed downright disappointment. Words like "Shit" and "Misled" indicate that plenty of Americans aren't ready to jump on the Clinton wagon. This is especially obvious in the newly trending hashtag #girliguessimwithher, which points to the trepidation plenty of voters feel at backing a candidate like Clinton. People may not love her record ... but is she better than the alternative?
Come November, I guess we'll all find out.
Images: Getty; Vox/Twitter
