Hillary Clinton clinches nomination: Here's how she did it

Striding into history, Hillary Clinton will become the first woman to top the presidential ticket of a major U.S. political party, capturing commitments Monday from the number of delegates needed to become the Democrats' presumptive nominee. (June 6) AP

Nearly a year before Hillary Clinton announced her presidential bid, she arrived at an Iowa steak fry to thousands of supporters wearing “Ready for Hillary” buttons lined up for barbecue next to antique tractors and bales of hay.

The “Ready for Hillary” super PAC was a new innovation, a grass-roots organization for a candidate-in-waiting — independent of Clinton herself and free from contribution limits. “There was some element of skepticism among DC know-it-alls, and they were proven very wrong,” said Tracy Sefl, a former senior adviser to the group.

On Monday night, the Associated Press said that Clinton had secured the support of enough superdelegates to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination when the party convenes at its July convention in Philadelphia. The announcement came on the eve of the last round of state primaries.

For all of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ grass-roots thunder, Clinton’s massive volunteer operation is a crucial piece of the story behind how she will become the nation's first female major-party presidential nominee.

It's a lesson that included following Barack Obama’s 2008 playbook: maximizing vote totals in all 50 states, including in caucus states like Wyoming that she lost; surrounding herself with advisers who kept a lid on the drama and infighting that plagued her previous run; and by giving command performances at critical junctures in the campaign, including at the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas in October and in her testimony before a special House Benghazi committee later that month.