(Getty)
The attention of both Democrats and Republicans now turns to their respective conventions next month. Aside from a June 14 Democratic primary in the District of Columbia, the next date in the 2016 presidential race will be the two upcoming conventions.
The GOP Convention will take place July 18-21 in Cleveland, Ohio. On the Democratic side, the convention will take place the following week in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 25-28.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are expected to be named the nominee for their respective parties. Bernie Sanders released a statement on Monday explaining that he will pursue a contested convention next month.
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,” Sanders said in a statement.
It remains to be seen whether Sanders will respond the same way after the June 7 primaries.
The early polling data shows a tight race between Clinton and Trump. Clinton has an average lead of two percentage points in the early polls.
