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Hillary Clinton Wins the District of Columbia Primary Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Meet as Their Battle Ends
(about 1 hour later)
WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, formally bringing the presidential primaries to a close. WASHINGTON — With little affection or trust between them, Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders met privately on Tuesday night to size each other up as they started exploring what kind of alliance they might build for the general election battle against Donald J. Trump.
The outcome of the District of Columbia’s contest was of little consequence, as Mrs. Clinton obtained enough delegates last week to be the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee. One question, though, is keeping intrigue alive: What will Senator Bernie Sanders, her rival for the nomination, do next? Neither Democrat entered the meeting on sure footing, and both were a little tense, advisers in each camp said beforehand.
Thus far, the only certainty is that he and Mrs. Clinton planned to meet privately in Washington on Tuesday night. Mr. Sanders is under mounting pressure to suspend his all-but-impossible bid for the nomination, but he has given no indication that he plans to drop out. Mrs. Clinton, who became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee last week, wanted to know what it would take to earn Mr. Sanders’s endorsement and whether he would seek policy concessions or political promises, her advisers said. Mr. Sanders wanted to gauge the depth of Mrs. Clinton’s commitment to progressive goals like a higher minimum wage and lower financial burdens on college students, and to making the Democratic nomination process more open in the future.
Several people close to the senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions, said he would try to get assurances from Mrs. Clinton that she will fight for many of his campaign policy proposals, including a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage, a jobs program tied to repairing the country’s infrastructure, and tuition-free public colleges and universities. The chemistry between the two candidates was strained, in part, because Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders had not had any real chances to air grievances or blow off steam with each other away from the television cameras during their 14-month fight for the nomination.
At this point, Mr. Sanders is refusing to concede defeat and release his delegates to vote for Mrs. Clinton, which some think could avoid a sense of disunity at the Democratic convention. His refusal could be a negotiating tactic for winning concessions on the party’s platform. Mrs. Clinton had a few such moments with Barack Obama in 2008 before they sat down for their own post-nomination tête-à-tête, which made it a little easier for them to come together, unite the Democratic Party and win that November.
“He looks forward to the opportunity to meet with Secretary Clinton, and he appreciates that they are able to get together and talk about where the party goes from here,” Michael Briggs, Mr. Sanders’s spokesman, said. “He hopes we can figure out a way to welcome all of the people who have turned out for Senator Sanders into the Democratic Party fold.” In a sign that they are still adjusting to each other, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders were joined in their meeting by Jane Sanders, Mr. Sanders’s wife; Jeff Weaver, his campaign manager; John D. Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman; and Robby Mook, her campaign manager.
In a statement released Monday evening, the Clinton campaign said that she and Mr. Sanders had agreed to meet when she called him last Tuesday night. “She looks forward to the opportunity to discuss how they can advance their shared commitment to a progressive agenda and work together to stop Donald Trump in the general election,” the statement said. Two advisers to Mr. Sanders described him as concerned that Mrs. Clinton might say all the right things now but embrace more politically moderate positions later if she thinks it necessary to win states like Florida, Ohio and Virginia.
Democrats have publicly urged patience with Mr. Sanders, suggesting that he has earned the right to end his presidential bid as he sees fit, hopefully with sufficient influence to direct his supporters to back Mrs. Clinton. While Mr. Sanders has remained vague about his plans, his fund-raising emails were largely replaced by solicitations urging people to vote in Tuesday’s primary and missives about the importance of statehood for the District of Columbia. The advisers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the campaign had not authorized them to speak, said Mr. Sanders felt no pressure to endorse Mrs. Clinton quickly. He wants her to take steps to win his confidence in the five and a half weeks before the Democratic convention, where his voters and delegates expect him to speak and Clinton advisers hope he will give a full-throated speech backing her.
Mrs. Clinton and her supporters are counting on Mr. Sanders to eventually endorse her and signal to his loyal base of more than 10 million voters that she is the best person to beat Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. Mr. Sanders also has an enormous donor list that Mrs. Clinton will want to use so that she can court the young voters who packed Mr. Sanders’s rallies across the country. Mr. Sanders has leverage: He accrued about 12 million votes and 1,877 delegates, and in a New York Times/CBS News poll last month, 28 percent of his supporters said they would not vote for Mrs. Clinton if she was the Democratic nominee. Mrs. Clinton picked up nearly 16 million votes and 2,784 delegates.
Mrs. Clinton was declared the presumptive nominee last week after she crossed the threshold of 2,383 delegates needed to secure the nomination. She has also won a majority of pledged delegates, a majority of the states that have held primaries, and the popular vote. Whether Mr. Sanders endorses her enthusiastically and campaigns for her, or recognizes her as the nominee but otherwise withholds his blessing, is a significant concern for some Clinton advisers. Others in her campaign think that Democrats will ultimately unite because the possibility of a Trump victory is too great to ignore.
Not ready to give up, many of Mr. Sanders’s most fervent supporters note that she has not won enough pledged delegates alone to secure the nomination. Superdelegates still have time to change their mind. Setting the stage for their meeting, Mr. Sanders used a news conference here Tuesday afternoon to call for replacing the leaders of the Democratic National Committee, eliminating the role of superdelegates in the party’s nomination process, and allowing independents and last-minute registrants to vote in all Democratic primaries. His campaign has long viewed the head of the committee, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, as a Clinton ally who orchestrated the debate schedule and made other decisions to benefit Mrs. Clinton.
Mr. Sanders vowed on Sunday to remain in the race until the convention in July, a move that took some by surprise. Several people close to him said he was focused on taking his campaign to the convention because he wanted to keep fighting for the ideas that won him millions of supporters. They also said he was concerned that if he conceded without getting some of his policies injected into the party, some of his supporters would not vote for Mrs. Clinton, even if Mr. Sanders endorsed her. “I think the time is now — in fact, the time is long overdue — for a fundamental transformation of the Democratic Party,” Mr. Sanders said at the news conference. “We need a party which is prepared to stand up for the disappearing middle class, for the 47 million people in this country who are living in poverty, and take on the greed of the powerful special interests that are doing so much harm to this country.”
Mr. Sanders also told reporters over the weekend that he would continue his efforts aimed at “transforming the Democratic Party.” He did not, as he has in the past, talk about trying to persuade superdelegates to withdraw support from Mrs. Clinton and back him instead. And in a private meeting on Sunday with about 20 supporters and advisers, there was no talk from Mr. Sanders about trying to win the nomination. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders met on the day of the Democratic primary in Washington, D.C., the final contest of the four-and-a-half-month nominating process. Shortly after voting ended, The Associated Press declared Mrs. Clinton the winner; with three-quarters of precincts reporting, she had won 79 percent of the vote.
“We are very good at arithmetic,” he said. “We know, you know, who has the received the most votes up to now.” Mr. Sanders received a standing ovation when he dropped in at the Senate Democrats’ weekly lunch to speak about his campaign and pose for an official Senate photo with his colleagues. He has not been in the Capitol much of late; according to his website, he has not cast a vote since Jan. 12.
“It was very upbeat, very optimistic,” Senator Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan, said.