LOS ANGELES, June 8, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Residents wait in line to cast their votes during the presidential primary election at Santa Monica City Hall in Santa Monica, California, theUnited States, on June 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhao Hanrong)
By Lu Jiafei
WASHINGTON, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Though the Democratic primary season is all but over with Hillary Clinton about to become the first female standard-bearer of a major U.S. political party, the dust is far from being settled.
Clinton on Tuesday claimed the Democratic nomination after decisive victories in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. According to the latest New York Times delegate count, Clinton had won 2,184 pledged delegates and garned support of 571 superdelegates, party leaders who are free to vote for any candidate at the national convention in July.
Speaking at a rally Tuesday night in New York, Clinton directly appealed to rival Bernie Sanders' supporters for party unity after declaring herself the first woman to be nominated by a major U.S. political party.
"Let there be no mistake: Senator Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that we've had about how to raise income, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility, have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America," said Clinton.
"It never feels good to put our heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in and come up short. I know that feeling well," said Clinton in an attempt to connect with Sanders' supporters using her loss in 2008 primary race to Barack Obama.
"But as we look ahead to the battle that awaits, let's remember all that unites us," she added.
However, despite his mathematical elimination from the race, Sanders pledged early Wednesday morning to continue the fight into the national convention in July.
"We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C., and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia," Sanders said to supporters at a rally in California.
At the same time, he acknowledged the "very, very steep" path ahead of him and turned his fire on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump rather than Clinton.
According to Sanders' campaign website, the senator will hold a campaign rally in Washington on Thursday.
Sanders' pledge to continue his campaign came hours before the final result of California Democratic primary came out, in which Clinton notched an easy victory by two-digit lead.
Sanders had long been eying an upset victory in California where 475 pledged delegates were up for grab.
While a victory there would not change the contour of the race, given the fact that all Democratic nomination races allot pledged delegates proportionally, it would lend Sanders more leverage at the national convention where the party's platform would also been put forward.
A strong performance in California had also for long been one vital part of Sanders' strategies to peel superdelegates off Clinton.
After his defeat in California, it remains unknown what Sanders' next step would be. However, it is certain that he is facing mounting pressure within the party to suspend his campaign and line up behind Clinton.
According to local media report, U.S. President Barack Obama is likely to endorse Clinton very soon, and in a statement issued late Tuesday night, the White House said Obama would meet Sanders at the White House on Thursday.
However, unlike the prompt rapprochement reached between Clinton and Obama in 2008 primary season, reconciliation this time between Sanders and Clinton this time could be elusive.
For one thing, Sanders had for long called himself an independent and democratic socialist, and he joined the Democratic Party only last year to get on the ballot. Therefore, his is less committed to party loyalty than Clinton was eight years ago.
Even more daunting a task this time for party establishment to bridge the Clinton and Sanders divide was the anti-establishment sentiment Sanders had stirred up among disheartened Democratic and independent voters in this chaotic primary season.
According to the most recent YouGov poll released on May 25, half of Sanders' supporters would turn away from Clinton in a matchup between Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. At the end of April, YouGov poll found that 63 percent of Sanders' supporters were willing to vote for Clinton.
While these supporters were not going to the Trump camp, the poll found that an increasing proportion of them chose either to vote for someone else or to simply opt out of the race.
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