The long run of U.S. presidential nominating contests is nearing the end, with Democrats voting Tuesday in Washington in the last contest, even as former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has claimed the party's nomination in November's national election.
There are 330,000 registered Democrats in the national capital and Clinton is the heavy favorite in the city's primary over her sole challenger, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
He told news talk shows Sunday he would meet with Clinton, who is seeking to become the country's first female president, Tuesday night after the Washington vote to gauge her support for policies he has advocated during the months-long race for the Democratic nomination. He has called for tighter controls on Wall Street banks and condemned the country's growing income inequality between the country's wealthiest people and everyday workers.
The outcome of the Washington vote will not affect the overall result in the at-times contentious contest between Clinton and Sanders. After votes in six states last week, Clinton claimed enough delegates to the party's July national convention to win the Democratic nomination to face the presumptive Republican nominee, real estate mogul Donald Trump, in the November 8 election.
The 74-year-old Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, ran a much stronger race against Clinton than originally expected, winning big majorities of younger voters over her and 22 of the 50 state contests.
But Clinton, the wife of former president Bill Clinton, eventually amassed 3.7 million more votes than Sanders in winning 28 state contests, often in bigger states than he won.
