Hillary Clinton won the final Democratic primary Tuesday night as voters in Washington, D.C., delivered a resounding win to the party’s presumptive nominee, one week after she clinched the nomination.

The contest marked the close of one of the longest primary fights in American history. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) contested the final primary, even while acknowledging the reality of the delegate math.


But it’s not clear whether the end of voting marks the end of the race.

Sanders has yet to officially concede, and as recently as Sunday said he would take his campaign to the Democratic convention. He reiterated at a news conference Tuesday the need to change the Democratic Party, and said he would take “that fight” to the convention in Philadelphia.

Whether or not Sanders bows out and throws his support behind Clinton before then might depend on the initial progress made in a meeting held Tuesday night at the Capital Hilton. Clinton, accompanied by campaign manager Robby Mook and campaign chairman John Podesta, met with Sanders, who was joined by his wife Jane and campaign manager Jeff Weaver.

The group met for about two hours. Then, without a word to the assembled press, both candidates departed.

The meeting was characterized afterward as a “positive discussion” by a Clinton campaign official. Clinton congratulated Sanders on the campaign, and the two discussed the party platform and issues they could work together on, according to the official.

“Sanders congratulated Secretary Clinton on the campaign she has run and said he appreciated her strong commitment to stopping Trump in the general election," said Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs in a statement. "The two discussed a variety of issues where they are seeking common ground: substantially raising the minimum wage; real campaign finance reform; making health care universal and accessible; making college affordable and reducing student debt."

The final contests proved disappointing for Sanders, who hoped that wins in the late primaries could propel him to the nomination at a contested convention. Instead, Clinton won 5 of the last 7 contests. After clinching the nomination on June 7, Clinton also received the endorsements of President Barack Obama and progressive hero Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as the party began to close ranks around her.

Over the course of more than four months, Clinton captured 28 states compared to Sanders’ 22, and she won 15.7 million votes in the primaries, compared to 12 million for Sanders. In the math that mattered most — the hunt for delegates — the contests prior to D.C. yielded 2,203 pledged delegates for Clinton and 1,828 for Sanders. A total of 2,383 delegates were needed to capture the nomination, and the 581 super delegates supporting Clinton were more than enough to put her over the top.

The win Tuesday night was little more than a welcome exclamation point to mark the end of a long campaign.

In 2008, Clinton lost the D.C. primary to then-Senator Obama, who captured 75 percent of the vote. But the heavily African-American electorate, which proved a disadvantage to Clinton in that contest, helped to deliver victory for the former secretary of state tonight. Clinton has dominated among African-American voters, dating back to South Carolina, where black voters made up 61 percent of the February 27 Democratic primary electorate. Clinton captured 86 percent of the African-American vote there.

Nonetheless, Sanders took his case to D.C. voters. He called for statehood for the capital city, noting that it is more populous than his home state of Vermont, and rallied with supporters outside of RFK Stadium. But with 83 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton led by 79 percent to 21 percent.

During a press conference Tuesday in D.C., Sanders remained combative, calling on the Democratic Party to eliminate the use of superdelegates and make it easier for voters to cast their ballots.

“We need major, major changes in the Democratic Party,” Sanders said. “And we need an electoral process that is worthy of” the party.

This final contest comes more than four months after voting began on Feb. 1 with the Iowa caucuses. There is no corresponding GOP contest in D.C. Tuesday — the Republican Party held its D.C. nominating convention on March 12. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio captured the most delegates, only to leave the race less than a week later after losing his home state.

Gabriel Debenedetti contributed to this report.