US Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has won the required number of delegates to clinch the party’s nomination.
The Associated Press declared the former first lady as the presumptive Democratic nominee after surveying undecided superdelegates about the candidate they were going to supporting at the convention later this month.
AP found that Clinton had enough support among superdelegates to reach the 2,383-delegate threshold needed for the nomination.
The announcement came only a day before six major primaries on Tuesday, including big states like California and New Jersey.
Clinton found herself only 19 delegates away from nomination after winning the Puerto Rico primary on Sunday.
The former secretary of state, however, was not too excited about the AP report, saying that there is still work left to do.
“We are at the brink of a historic moment but we still have work to do,” she told at a campaign event on Monday.
Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, echoed the candidate, saying that while the AP report amounted to “an important milestone,” the former first lady did not intend to declare victory until Tuesday night, when she “will clinch not only a win in the popular vote, but also the majority of pledged delegates.”
Meanwhile, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who is running against Clinton in the White House race took a dim view of AP’s math, saying Clinton had yet to win the nomination.
His campaign argue that the veteran politician would lobby Clinton superdelegates and win over their support as he holds the party’s best chances to defeat the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgment, are ignoring the Democratic National Committee’s clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer,” Michael Briggs, a Sanders spokesman, said in a statement.
To prove that he really stands a chance against Clinton, Sanders needs to bolster his campaign by scoring a victory in California.
The latest polls show Sanders and Clinton in a virtual tie in California, the country’s most populous state. A loss in California for Clinton would make a sour and deflating end to her primary campaign possible.