Historic vote at Democratic national convention ends with Bernie Sanders calling for unanimous nomination in bid to tamp down discord within party
Democrats officially nominated Hillary Clinton as their standard-bearer in the presidential contest on Tuesday, sealing her position as the first female nominee of a major party in US history at the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia.
While Clinton had already met the threshold of the 2,383 delegates required to clinch the nomination and beat Bernie Sanders through her primary victories, the official vote was a significant moment in American political history despitelingering discord within the party.
Although Clinton finished the Democratic primary with 2,807 delegates, compared with Sanders’ 1,894, a faction of the Vermont senator’s supporters arrived at the convention threatening a floor fight – or contested vote on the floor – over the nomination. They were further emboldened by leaked emails showing personal bias toward Clinton among officials at the Democratic National Committee, a controversy that culminated on Sunday in the resignation of party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
But in a bid for party unity, the campaigns of both Clinton and Sanders agreed to hold a vote that allowed Sanders delegates to show their support for the progressive senator, who defied all expectations by creating a grassroots movement across the country.
In another symbolic gesture, it was Sanders who called for the party to unanimously nominate Clinton when the roll call vote reached its completion with the Vermont delegation. The moment echoed the 2008 Democratic convention, when Clinton ended the roll call vote with a similar call for acclamation for Barack Obama from the New York delegation.
Democrats officially nominated Hillary Clinton as their standard-bearer in the presidential contest on Tuesday, sealing her position as the first female nominee of a major party in US history at the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia.
While Clinton had already met the threshold of the 2,383 delegates required to clinch the nomination and beat Bernie Sanders through her primary victories, the official vote was a significant moment in American political history despitelingering discord within the party.
Although Clinton finished the Democratic primary with 2,807 delegates, compared with Sanders’ 1,894, a faction of the Vermont senator’s supporters arrived at the convention threatening a floor fight – or contested vote on the floor – over the nomination. They were further emboldened by leaked emails showing personal bias toward Clinton among officials at the Democratic National Committee, a controversy that culminated on Sunday in the resignation of party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
But in a bid for party unity, the campaigns of both Clinton and Sanders agreed to hold a vote that allowed Sanders delegates to show their support for the progressive senator, who defied all expectations by creating a grassroots movement across the country.
In another symbolic gesture, it was Sanders who called for the party to unanimously nominate Clinton when the roll call vote reached its completion with the Vermont delegation. The moment echoed the 2008 Democratic convention, when Clinton ended the roll call vote with a similar call for acclamation for Barack Obama from the New York delegation.
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