Clinton secures win as husband pledges she will ‘never quit’
Democrats on Tuesday made Hillary Clinton the first female presidential nominee of a major party in the nation’s history, shattering one of the last remaining glass ceilings in American politics.
The former first lady, New York senator and secretary of state was formally installed as the party nominee to take on Donald Trump on an emotional night at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.
Clinton will formally accept the nomination on Thursday night, but appeared at the convention live via satellite Tuesday to thank delegates for confirming her as the party’s nominee.
“What an incredible honor that you have given me and I can’t believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet,” she said. “This is really your victory. This is really your night. And if there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say I may become the first woman president but one of you is next.”
Moments before she spoke, Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, built an extended case for his wife as an agent of change. He told the convention audience that Hillary Clinton has spent her life fighting to improve people’s lives.
“This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo on anything. She has always wanted to move the ball forward — that is who she is,” Bill Clinton said. “She’s a change-maker. That’s what she does.”
He also spoke in deeply personal terms of the early days of their relationship.
“In the spring of 1971, I met a girl,” he said.
Clinton said he and Hillary have been together in “good times and bad, through joy and heartbreak.”
“We’ve built up a lifetime of memories,” he said.
Hillary Clinton’s nomination comes on the second day of the Democratic National Convention, where leaders sought to move past the drama of divisions between Clinton and Sanders supporters.
As part of the ongoing push to bring Democrats together following repeated shows of dissent from disenchanted Sanders supporters, Sanders addressed the convention and moved for Clinton to be acclaimed the party nominee.
“I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for President of the United States,” he said.
The self-proclaimed democratic socialist won nearly 2,000 delegates during his insurgent campaign, but told his supporters on Monday night in that they had no choice but to unite around Clinton to ensure the defeat of GOP nominee Donald Trump.
As soon as the Clinton nomination was made official, a group of Sanders supporters staged a walk out from the convention hall “chanting “this is what democracy looks like” before heading for the press tent.
Elsewhere in the hall, a Sanders delegate from Nevada was escorted out of the hall, yelling “Nevada was rigged.”
Clinton’s moment
The nominating formalities on Tuesday night mark a moment of vindication for Clinton, who emerged from the wreckage of her unsuccessful 2008 bid to serve as secretary of state in Obama’s “Team of Rivals” cabinet.
But she faces a grueling campaign against Trump, who is enjoying a polling bounce after his own convention in Cleveland last week and is now locked in a close race with the soon to be Democratic nominee.
Clinton can, however, draw on political lessons learned after her long career in the glare of the public spotlight.
This year, the Clinton campaign and the candidate herself appeared determined to apply the lessons from her defeat eight years ago to her second White House bid, running a notably different campaign.
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