AFP, Washington :
Hillary Clinton defeated her rival Bernie Sanders in Puerto Rico’s Democratic primary Sunday, taking her to the brink of victory in their long-fought battle for the party’s presidential nomination.
Former secretary of state Clinton won with 59.38 percent of the vote against 37.53 percent for Sanders, according to official results from the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico.
Victory in debt-hobbled Puerto Rico marked a double dose of good news for Clinton over the weekend, with another territory, the US Virgin Islands, voting overwhelmingly for her on Saturday.
The pair of wins provides a boost ahead of Tuesday’s culminating vote with New Jersey and the big prize of California at stake.
“We just won Puerto Rico! ¡Gracias a la Isla del Encanto por esta victoria!” — Clinton wrote in a bilingual tweet that thanked the Isle of Enchantment for the win.
Puerto Rico has 60 pledged delegates at stake, and Clinton won 36 of them, with 24 going to Sanders.
That puts Clinton, who amassed 2,323 delegates prior to Puerto Rico’s vote, just a handful shy of the 2,383 needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, a threshold she will undoubtedly cross on Tuesday.
Sanders, however, has vowed to fight on all the way until the Democratic National Convention in July, arguing he could persuade many of the several hundred so-called super delegates who back Clinton to change their allegiance and support his campaign.
Super delegates are Democratic Party bigwigs who are not bound to any candidate or to the results of statewide votes and do not officially cast their vote until the convention.
Both Clinton and Sanders campaigned in Puerto Rico in recent weeks, and both have put forward plans to help the island emerge from a debt crisis.
Lawmakers have introduced legislation, backed by the White House, that would be charged with overseeing fiscal and structural reforms aimed at stabilizing its finances and restructuring the Caribbean island’s $70 billion in debt.
Hillary Clinton Will Clinch Democratic Nomination On Tuesday: Aide
Washington: Hillary Clinton will have enough delegates by Tuesday when a multi-state primary vote is to take place to make her the first woman presidential nominee of a major party in the US, her close aide said on Sunday.
“We think we’re going to come out of Tuesday night with the delegates we need for her to be the first woman nominee on a major party ticket in the United States. So, we’re looking forward to that,” John Podesta, chairman of the Hillary Clinton Campaign, told Fox News.
Presidential primaries are scheduled to be held in six states, including the delegate-rich state of California (475) on Tuesday.
The other states where primaries will be held are — Montana (21), New Jersey (126), North Dakota (18), New Mexico (34) and South Dakota (20).
Ms Clinton currently is 60 delegates short of the magical figure of 2,382 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic party’s nomination.
The 68-year-old former secretary of state is receiving a tough fight from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has 1,547 delegates against Clinton’s 2,323, as per the latest count of RealClearPolitics.com.
“What we’re saying is that she will have the delegates to be the nominee. We’re going to do everything we can to reach out to appeal to his supporters, to appeal to his (Mr Sanders) campaign and to him directly. We want to bring this party together because the country faces a major threat in Donald Trump. We hope that he will join us,” Mr Podesta said.
He exuded confidence that Ms Clinton would be way ahead of Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, during the general elections.
“He (Trump) has consolidated the Republicans. That’s led to something of a tightening of a pulse. But this has really just begun. That’s why Hillary Clinton on Thursday of this week went to San Diego and really laid out a strong case about why he’s unfit, why he does not meet the commander-in-chief test,” he said.
“And what did she use to prove that point? Really his own words, the things he said in this campaign from being in favour of expanding and proliferating weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons to pulling out of NATO to offending our allies and supporting dictators around the world,” Mr Podesta said.
He argued that over the long term people are going to come to see Mr Trump as not having the temperament to serve as president and commander-in-chief.
“The card we’re going to play against Trump is that he has always been for himself. He’s a self-aggrandizer at the expense of literally thousands of people,” the top Ms Clinton aide said.
Hillary Clinton defeated her rival Bernie Sanders in Puerto Rico’s Democratic primary Sunday, taking her to the brink of victory in their long-fought battle for the party’s presidential nomination.
Former secretary of state Clinton won with 59.38 percent of the vote against 37.53 percent for Sanders, according to official results from the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico.
Victory in debt-hobbled Puerto Rico marked a double dose of good news for Clinton over the weekend, with another territory, the US Virgin Islands, voting overwhelmingly for her on Saturday.
The pair of wins provides a boost ahead of Tuesday’s culminating vote with New Jersey and the big prize of California at stake.
“We just won Puerto Rico! ¡Gracias a la Isla del Encanto por esta victoria!” — Clinton wrote in a bilingual tweet that thanked the Isle of Enchantment for the win.
Puerto Rico has 60 pledged delegates at stake, and Clinton won 36 of them, with 24 going to Sanders.
That puts Clinton, who amassed 2,323 delegates prior to Puerto Rico’s vote, just a handful shy of the 2,383 needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, a threshold she will undoubtedly cross on Tuesday.
Sanders, however, has vowed to fight on all the way until the Democratic National Convention in July, arguing he could persuade many of the several hundred so-called super delegates who back Clinton to change their allegiance and support his campaign.
Super delegates are Democratic Party bigwigs who are not bound to any candidate or to the results of statewide votes and do not officially cast their vote until the convention.
Both Clinton and Sanders campaigned in Puerto Rico in recent weeks, and both have put forward plans to help the island emerge from a debt crisis.
Lawmakers have introduced legislation, backed by the White House, that would be charged with overseeing fiscal and structural reforms aimed at stabilizing its finances and restructuring the Caribbean island’s $70 billion in debt.
Hillary Clinton Will Clinch Democratic Nomination On Tuesday: Aide
Washington: Hillary Clinton will have enough delegates by Tuesday when a multi-state primary vote is to take place to make her the first woman presidential nominee of a major party in the US, her close aide said on Sunday.
“We think we’re going to come out of Tuesday night with the delegates we need for her to be the first woman nominee on a major party ticket in the United States. So, we’re looking forward to that,” John Podesta, chairman of the Hillary Clinton Campaign, told Fox News.
Presidential primaries are scheduled to be held in six states, including the delegate-rich state of California (475) on Tuesday.
The other states where primaries will be held are — Montana (21), New Jersey (126), North Dakota (18), New Mexico (34) and South Dakota (20).
Ms Clinton currently is 60 delegates short of the magical figure of 2,382 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic party’s nomination.
The 68-year-old former secretary of state is receiving a tough fight from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has 1,547 delegates against Clinton’s 2,323, as per the latest count of RealClearPolitics.com.
“What we’re saying is that she will have the delegates to be the nominee. We’re going to do everything we can to reach out to appeal to his supporters, to appeal to his (Mr Sanders) campaign and to him directly. We want to bring this party together because the country faces a major threat in Donald Trump. We hope that he will join us,” Mr Podesta said.
He exuded confidence that Ms Clinton would be way ahead of Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, during the general elections.
“He (Trump) has consolidated the Republicans. That’s led to something of a tightening of a pulse. But this has really just begun. That’s why Hillary Clinton on Thursday of this week went to San Diego and really laid out a strong case about why he’s unfit, why he does not meet the commander-in-chief test,” he said.
“And what did she use to prove that point? Really his own words, the things he said in this campaign from being in favour of expanding and proliferating weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons to pulling out of NATO to offending our allies and supporting dictators around the world,” Mr Podesta said.
He argued that over the long term people are going to come to see Mr Trump as not having the temperament to serve as president and commander-in-chief.
“The card we’re going to play against Trump is that he has always been for himself. He’s a self-aggrandizer at the expense of literally thousands of people,” the top Ms Clinton aide said.
