Clinton makes history with presidential nomination

PHILADELPHIA • Hillary Clinton became the first woman nominated for president of the United States by a major political party Tuesday, marking a historic moment for America and putting a formal end to her long primary battle with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“Eight years ago, our party nominated and elected the first person of colour to ever serve in the White House,” U.S. Rep. John Lewis said, seconding Clinton’s nomination. “Tonight we will shatter that glass ceiling again. We’re the party of tomorrow, and we will build a true democracy in America.”

Clinton’s nomination came on the second day of a contentious Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Amid protests and sweltering heat, the party tried to pivot from the discord that marked Monday’s program toward the historic nature of the Clinton campaign.

“The Hillary I know listens,” former senator Barbara Mikulski said in her nominating speech. “She is a leader. And so, on behalf of all the women who’ve broken down barriers for others, and with an eye toward the barriers still ahead, I proudly place Hillary Clinton’s name in nomination to be the next president of the United States.”

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Cl i n t o n’s nomination came at the end of a bruising primary campaign. Sanders emerged as an unlikely rival to the former first lady. Riding a populist, anti-corporate message, he challenged Clinton deep into the spring, attacking her ties to Wall Street, her history of supporting free trade, and her status as a Washington insider.

The wounds from that battle were visible everywhere Monday in Philadelphia. Sanders loyalists booed Clinton’s name inside the Wells Fargo Arena while outside his supporters marched in the sun. When Sanders addressed the convention Monday night, he urged his supporters to unite and back Clinton as the party’s nominee. But many seemed unwilling to heed his pleas.

Still, the arena Tuesday lacked the flinty edge so evident the night before. Sanders diehards could still be seen in the crowd. One woman held up a banner reading “Election Fraud” during the roll-call vote. Another unfurled a full-sized Sanders flag on the floor.

But if there were boos they weren’t audible in the lower bowl. And in a bid for party unity, Sanders himself rose after the roll-call vote and asked that the nomination be made unanimous. Despite some loud objections, the vote passed and the party was, officially, united behind Clinton.

The program Tuesday focused on Clinton’s professional and personal history of service. The theme of the night was “Fights of her life.”

“I have known Hillary Clinton for many years. She is one of the most qualified candidates to ever run for president,” Lewis said. “She could have done anything with her life, but she decided long ago she didn’t want to just do well, she wanted to do good.”

Clinton spent Tuesday at her home in New York. Her husband, former president Bill Clinton, was set to speak later in the night, along with a host of other figures, including advocates for the disabled, a sex-trafficking survivor, former Vermont governor Howard Dean and actress Meryl Streep.

The nomination marked another milestone in a political career unlike any other. Clinton has been a fixture in American politics for more than 25 years. As first lady, senator and secretary of state she has rarely been out of the public eye and often in the heart of controversy for most of her adult life.

Clinton provokes in some Americans an almost rabid hatred. At the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week, crowds demanded her arrest, chanting “Lock her up!” on all four nights of the convention.

Even within her own