“I will be honored to vote for the first woman President of the United States”

“Tonight caps an amazing journey — a long, long journey,” Hillary Clinton declared in front of a crowd filled with supporters and her entire Brooklyn campaign staff. Tuesday night, the final six states held their primaries (Washington, D.C. votes on June 14^th) and picked their Democratic nominee for president. For the first time in the nation’s history, a woman is the presumptive presidential candidate of a major political party.

It’s ironic Clinton claimed victory on June 7^th. Eight years earlier, Clinton stood in front of a similar podium with a very different mood filling the air to deliver the “other” speech. She suspended her campaign, stepping aside to allow the Democratic party to unify behind then Sen. Barack Obama.

“Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it,” Clinton said in her 2008 concession speech. “The light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time.”

The road perhaps wasn’t as easy as Clinton had expected the next time. The hotly contested and often tense contest between Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont continued to the last state primaries with the importance of superdelegates weighing heavily over that magic 2,383 number. While Sanders has vowed to campaign until the convention in Philadelphia, many of his staffers have privately accepted defeat.

“I had a very gracious call from Secretary Clinton and congratulated her on her victories tonight,” Sanders told a riled up crowd in Los Angeles Tuesday. “Our fight is to transform our country and to understand that we are in this together.”

Sanders claimed victory in the North Dakota caucus and Montana primary, while Clinton won the other four states including California, the state with the most delegates up for grabs. When Clinton delivered her remarks from the picturesque Brooklyn Navy Yard, polls still remained open in the Golden State (her golden victory wouldn’t be officially declared until a little after 6 am ET).

The ceiling of the Navy Yard wasn’t glass—but Clinton beamed with pride thinking about the metaphorical one that had been shattered.

“It may be hard to see tonight, but we’re all standing under a glass ceiling right now,” Clinton said. “But don’t worry. We’re not smashing this one. Thanks to you, we’ve reached a milestone.”

Ari Rabin-Havt added historical context to Clinton’s nomination and what it means for Democrats.

“Regardless of people’s individual thoughts about this race, anyone would be remiss not to acknowledge the historic nature of what, frankly, the Democratic party has done. In two presidential cycles in a row, first nominating the first African-American major party candidate and guiding him to the White House and now nominating the first woman to lead a major party ticket,” Rabin-Havt said Wednesday. “I will be honored to vote for the first woman President of the United States”

The Agenda with Ari Rabin-Havt airs Monday through Friday at 6:00am on SiriusXM Progress (Ch. 127).

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