Making History: Clinton Becomes First Woman Presidential Nominee

PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Clinton is now officially the Democratic presidential nominee, making history as the first woman ever to secure the backing of a major American political party.

Clinton was formally nominated on the second evening of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, more than nine years after launching her first presidential bid. It was largely an evening of unity after an opening night marked by resistance from die-hard supporters of Democratic runner-up, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

In a culmination of days’ worth of efforts to unify the party, Sanders himself moved at the conclusion of the lengthy state-by-state roll call vote — after Clinton had won a majority of delegates but before her formal nomination was announced to the thousands gathered in the Wells Fargo Center — to select Clinton as the nominee.

In an emotional show of support, Sander state, “I move that all votes cast by delegates be reflected in the official record, and I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States,”

A former first lady, New York senator and secretary of state, Clinton enters the general election with a lengthy resume of public service, nearly universal name recognition, and historically high negative favorability ratings after failing to shake recurrent scandals over her handling of a private email server during her tenure at the State Department.

Clinton finally becomes the nominee of her party after a pair of grueling primary contests stretching over two election cycles. Her first run for the presidency, announced in January 2007, ended in a bitter loss to then-Sen. Barack Obama in a Democratic primary that stretched into the summer of the election year.

The dreams of Sanders faded after a series of decisive wins by the former first lady late in the primary calendar. Ultimately, Clinton bested Sanders by over 380 pledged delegates and secured about 55 percent of the total primary votes cast.

Calls for Democratic unity Monday night from first lady Michelle Obama, progressive hero Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sanders himself served to calm all but the Vermont senator’s most inconsolable backers. The evening was not without notes of disunity. A group of Sanders supporters marched out of the Wells Fargo Center as celebrations were underway.

The United States made history in nominating Hillary Clinton, yet lags behind a number of countries led by elected female leaders. We are currently living under a record-high number of simultaneous female world leaders.

For several years now, the stable status quo has been around 20 female world leaders at any given time. For much of 2014, the number was 22 — a record high.

Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel 2005

Liberia, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf 2006

Argentina, President Cristine Fernandez de Kirchner 2007

Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed 2009

Lithuania, President Dalia Grybauskaite 2009

Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minster Kamla Persad Bissessar 2010

Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff 2011

Kosovo, President Atifete Jahjaga 2011

Denmark, Prime Minster Helle Thorning-Schmidt 2001

Jamaica, Prime Minster Portia Simpson Miller 2012

South Korea, President Park Geun-hye 2013

Slovenia, Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek 2013

Norway, Prime Minster Erna Solberg

Chile, President Michelle Bachelet 2014