AP Count: Hillary Clinton Has Delegates To Win Democratic Nomination

Hillary Clinton will be the first woman to top the presidential ticket of a major U.S. political party, having captured commitments from the number of delegates needed to become the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee.

An Associated Press count of pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses and a survey of party insiders known as superdelegates shows Clinton with the overall support of the required 2,383 delegates.

It was a victory that arrived Monday -- nearly eight years to the day after she conceded her first White House campaign to Barack Obama and famously noted her inability to "shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling."

Campaigning this time as the loyal successor to the nation's first black president, Clinton held off a surprisingly strong challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to break through.

Clinton reached the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive nominee with a decisive victory in Puerto Rico and a burst of last-minute support from party insiders known as superdelegates.

A short time later, CBS News confirmed Clinton as having enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination with support of elected delegates and superdelegates.

Clinton went to Twitter soon after the Associated Press announced their count and urged voters in Tuesday's primaries to go out and vote.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' campaign spokesman, Michael Briggs, released the following statement:

“It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgement, are ignoring the Democratic National Committee’s clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer.

“Secretary Clinton does not have and will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to secure the nomination. She will be dependent on superdelegates who do not vote until July 25 and who can change their minds between now and then. They include more than 400 superdelegates who endorsed Secretary Clinton 10 months before the first caucuses and primaries and long before any other candidate was in the race.

“Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump.”

The Democratic National Committee has not commented on the Associated Press' count.