Nevada delegates, officials react as Clinton becomes historic nominee

Image

Carolyn Kaster / AP

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appears on the screen during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016.

Published Tue, Jul 26, 2016 (4:01 p.m.)

Updated Tue, Jul 26, 2016 (9:30 p.m.)

DNC Day 2

Alpha Lillstrom and Nadia Halma cry as Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appears on the screen during the second day session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (AP Photo/John Locher) Launch slideshow »

The Democratic Party officially chose Hillary Clinton as its presidential nominee at its convention Tuesday night, making her the first woman to secure the presidential nomination of a major party in the nation’s history.

Clinton’s nomination culminates the first chapter of a long, rough road to the White House. She was declared the party’s presumptive nominee last month after it was determined she had enough support of pledged delegates and committed superdelegates to secure the nomination; however, the fight for the nomination continued to the convention floor here in the City of Brotherly Love.

Supporters of Bernie Sanders held out hope until today that he would emerge the Democratic nominee. They hoped that Clinton superdelegates — party officials and elected leaders whose votes are not bound to any candidate — would switch their votes last-minute and throw the election for Sanders instead.

But Clinton’s nomination didn’t come down to a number’s game. After each state read off their roll call votes — including a 27-16 split in favor of Clinton from Nevada — Sanders made a motion to suspend the party rules and for Clinton to be unanimously nominated by voice vote, a show of unity for a party that has appeared extremely fractured in recent days.

Clinton was elected the party’s nominee for president in an overwhelming shout of “aye,” prompting many attendees to emphatically wave multicolored signs bearing Clinton’s “H” logo.

Democrats came into the convention hoping to show to the world a united party they could present in stark contrast to Republicans, who are also divided over Donald Trump’s nomination as president.

However, the crowd at the Wells Fargo Center was far from unified. Immediately after the vote, a couple hundred Sanders supporters poured into the hallways chanting "walkout." The crowd marched into the media filing center, where many sat on the ground with pieces of tape over their mouths that said "no voice."

Nevada's Sanders contingent didn't make it all the way inside the pavilion, the site of the pro-Sanders demonstration. Police cut off access to the space and lined wall of glass doors on both sides of the center.

Angie Morelli, a Sanders delegate, stood outside the glass walls of the pavilion holding up a peace sign. She said the Nevada group hadn’t planned to participate in the walkout but mobilized after members of their delegation had a "rough day" today, with some being shoved or targeted by snippy comments.

She said the Sanders delegates were "obviously pretty upset" over the voice vote and Clinton being elected the nominee. She said she felt Sanders was forced into making a voice vote, and that it looked like he "clearly didn't want to be doing that."

"I get that there are powerful politicians that need to remain in power," Morelli said. "But I don't like that they have to be doing things they don't feel comfortable doing.”

She added that she will vote for either Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein or she’ll choose Nevada’s “none of these candidates” option, but that she would never vote for Clinton.

Throughout the campaign, Sanders mobilized frustrated Democrats and independents around the hope of progressive change throughout the primary campaign.

Sanders started off as a little-known challenger — and not even a member of the Democratic Party. But, preaching a message of unfair campaign finance laws, income inequality, and lack of access to education and health care, Sanders quickly built a movement, touching on elements of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Nevada ultimately proved to be Clinton’s early firewall. She won the Iowa caucus by a much more narrow margin than would’ve been comfortable, and lost New Hampshire by a landslide to Sanders in its primary. Nevada, the third state in the nation to host a nominating contest, was the point where Clinton’s campaign righted its course, winning by a close but comfortable margin.

Sanders advocated a single-payer health care system, free college education, and to implement serious campaign finance reform. Many of the issues that Sanders brought to the table during his campaign eventually became a portion of the Democratic Party’s platform, passed by the convention body on Friday.

Other Sanders delegates from Nevada expressed major reservations about Clinton in the wake of her nomination, but left open the possibility of voting for her in November.

Hawah Ahmad, former president of the Young Democrats of Nevada, said she still has reservations about some of Clinton's foreign policy positions but that she will continue to listen to see what Clinton has to say over the next couple of months.

She said that her vote will ultimately come down to two things: foreign policy and how low she’s polling against Trump. If Clinton is polling low enough, Ahmad said she would vote for her regardless, worried about what a Trump presidency would look like.

“I do feel like my vote is a vote against internment and Trump,” Ahmad said.

She also called Sanders' motion for a unity vote “admirable,” though she said the end result still wasn’t what she wanted.

Adam Stuart Littman, another Sanders delegate, said he hasn’t decided who to vote for but that he has to look at the whole field. However, he said he will never vote for Trump.

“I don’t know anyone in the Bernie movement who’s going to vote for Trump,” Littman said.

Littman said his focus will be on working to ensure the progressive voice is represented in the state Democratic Party and to elect progressive candidates down ballot. He said that he doesn’t have to support the Democratic presidential nominee to support the Democratic party as a whole.

“The Sanders movement, our revolution, we’re not coming for a seat at the table. We’re coming for the table,” Littman said.

Clinton backers in Nevada say they’re committed to working with Sanders supporters to keep them involved in the party. County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, a Clinton supporter who sat on the DNC rules committee, pointed to the state delegation meeting on Monday morning as a sign of progress.

At that meeting, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison and the incoming DNC committeewoman in Nevada Allison Stephens committed to help mediate a meeting between Sanders supporters and the state Democratic Party.

“I’d like to shake their hands and say thank you for taking this step,” Giunchigliani said.

Rep. Dina Titus said that she thought the party would come together united out of the convention, despite the Sanders walkout earlier in the day, which she said was “unfortunate."

“If you want to have a real revolution, you don’t stay home, you fight,” Titus said.

On Clinton’s nomination, she said she was “thrilled.”

“She’s not breaking the glass ceiling just for herself, but for all the other little girls out there,” Titus said.

Back to top

SHARE

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy