US election 2016: Make-or-break time for Clinton in California
Here's what happened on the campaign trail the week of May 30.
Rivals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are pouring all their energy and resources into one last race that could hold the key to the Democratic nomination and beyond.
A Sanders win in the June 7 California primary would empower the self-described socialist to force a leftward tilt to the party’s political platform at next month’s convention. It would also hand Clinton a demoralizing defeat going into the general election against Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Some pundits even argue that it could hand Sanders — or a potential third alternative — the nomination if the delegates who aren’t pledged to any candidate decide to break with Clinton.
“A Sanders win in California would powerfully underscore Mrs. Clinton’s weakness as a candidate in the general election,” Douglas Schoen, a pollster and political adviser to President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 2000, wrote this week in The Wall Street Journal. “Democratic superdelegates — chosen by the party establishment and overwhelmingly backing Mrs. Clinton, 543-44 — would seriously question whether they should continue to stand behind her candidacy.”
