LOS ANGELES—Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton handedly won the Democratic primary in California on Tuesday, scoring 58% of the popular vote against Bernie Sanders’ 42%. That win was enough to give Clinton an additional 269 delegates to anoint her as the presumptive nominee at the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next month.
In addition to California, Clinton also won decisive victories in New Jersey and New Mexico, but it was the giant delegate count in the Golden State that had the Associated Press declaring on Monday night that Clinton was not only going to capture California but the nomination as well.
For gay, lesbian and transgender voters, the certainty of a campaign that included an LGBT friendly candidate is not enough to insure a large voter turnout. What is far more likely to energize the Democratic base is that Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate, has offended many within the US with his religious, sexual and gender bigotry.
From her campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, Clinton first clasp her hands over her heart in thanks to her supporters and then thrust them skyward in a V for victory.
At this point, voters are only one primary (District of Columbia) and the conventions away from an expected spirited campaign which will likely be fraught with Trump’s hypercritical excesses. He has already said he believes that Clinton should be jailed and that she and her husband the former President Bill Clinton had “turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves.”
For her part, Hillary Clinton has repeatedly downplayed Trump’s preparedness for the role as commander in chief of the US, as well as its president, charging “he wants to win by stoking fear and rubbing salt into wounds.”
