Hillary Clinton Wins South Dakota Primary

The Mount Rushmore state adds to Clinton’s lead among pledged delegates.
Hillary Clinton smiles at an event in Los Angeles on Monday. A win in South Dakota just adds to her margin of victory over Bernie Sanders.
Hillary Clinton smiles at an event in Los Angeles on Monday. A win in South Dakota just adds to her margin of victory over Bernie Sanders.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton won South Dakota’s Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday, adding to her sizable delegate lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Clinton’s victory hands her a majority of the state’s 20 pledged delegates, helping solidify her status as the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination on Monday night, when superdelegates declaring support for her pushed her total delegate count above the threshold needed to secure the nomination, according to The Associated Press.

Sanders’ campaign called AP's report a “rush to judgment,” because superdelegates can change their mind until the July 25 vote at the party convention in Philadelphia. Sanders' campaign reiterated plans to try to get superdelegates, including those backing Clinton, to throw in their lot with Sanders as the candidate best suited to beat Donald Trump in the general election.

The results in South Dakota will likely receive little attention on a night when five other states head to the polls, including California, where 475 delegates are in play -- more than any other state. Sanders trails Clinton in California by 4 percentage points, according to HuffPost Pollster’s polling average.

Sparsely populated South Dakota is not a swing state, and has not voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in a general election in decades.

No major polls appear to have been conducted in South Dakota prior to Tuesday’s primary.

Sanders campaigned in the state in May. Former President Bill Clinton campaigned on his wife’s behalf later that month.

The final contest in the Democratic primary comes June 14, when Democratic voters in the District of Columbia head to the polls.

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