Hillary Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta said the Clinton campaign expects the former first lady to clinch the nomination by next Tuesday.
“We think we’re going to come out of Tuesday night with the delegates we need for her to be the first woman nominee on a major party ticket in the United States,” he predicted on Sunday on Fox News. “So we’re looking forward to that.”
Podesta said the former secretary of state is “fighting” to pull off a victory in California because she’s “anxious” to wrap up the primary and clinch the Democratic presidential nomination.
“California’s important. And that’s why Hillary is crisscrossing the state,” Podesta said.
“We are fighting to win here,” he said. “But the reality is that [Clinton] has gotten three million more votes than Sen. [Bernie] Sanders and that she has now a 270 pledged-delegate lead on him.”
A series of polls released last week show Clinton running neck-and-neck against Sanders in the Golden State, which she won in 2008 by a margin of 8 percent. Should Sanders eke out victory, his campaign will likely use it to try to convince superdelegates he would be the more competitive candidate against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the general election.
