Hillary Clinton Just Became The First Woman To Clinch A Presidential Nomination

Hillary Clinton just clinched the Democratic presidential nomination by surpassing the required 2,383 delegates needed, according to the Associated Press's count.

Clinton reached the number with a combination of pledged delegates from primary election counts and superdelegates. She was pushed over the count the evening before primary elections in New Jersey, California, Montana and North and South Dakota.

With this, Clinton has become the first woman ever to clinch a presidential nomination for a major political party.

Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president back in 1872, nearly half a century before women had the right to vote. Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to be considered for a major party nomination in 1964 when she ran as a Republican. Shirley Chisholm followed in the Democratic party in 1972.

Clinton does not become the official Democratic presidential nominee until the convention confirms it in July in Philadelphia. However, Bernie Sanders has said  it will be a contested convention as superdelegates may still change their mind to vote for him.

Even if the delegate system were changed, analysts say, Clinton would have beaten Sanders. She is also winning in the popular vote.

Should Clinton be confirmed as the presidential nominee, she will be the first female presidential nominee for a major political party.

She will also become the third woman confirmed by a major political party to run in the general election. The other two women are Geraldine Ferraro, who ran as Democratic vice president with Walter Mondale in 1984, and Sarah Palin, who was John McCain's Republican running mate in 2008.

As the presumptive nominee, Clinton is now free to fully pivot to the general election. She will be turning her full attention to Donald Trump, who clinched the Republican nomination last month.

She already began doing this by attacking Trump in speeches, like a fiery one about foreign policy she gave last week.

In the speech, Clinton said,

Donald Trump's ideas aren't just different – they are dangerously incoherent. They're not even really ideas – just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds, and outright lies.

Trump, for his part, has made it clear his campaign against Clinton will be just as childish and sexist as we expected it would be.

We look forward to the debates this fall.

Citations: New York Times, BBC, Time, CNN, New York Times, Associated Press