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Reports: Sanders Will Nominate Clinton Ahead Of DNC Roll Call

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In another effort to tamp down on discord at the Democratic National Convention, Bernie Sanders will officially nominate his former rival Hillary Clinton for president during this evening's roll call vote.

It would be another move toward unity from the primary runner-up, coming amid continued protests from supporters of the Vermont senator still upset that Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.

The Sanders and Clinton camps are still in talks about the nomination, CNN reports, so details could still change.

Clinton won the most primary popular votes and pledged delegates, and she is poised to officially become the first female nominee of a major political party after Tuesday's roll call vote.

But even an endorsement from Sanders and a speech in favor of Clinton last night hasn't done much to placate the progressive favorite's most fervent supporters. In the final speech the official convention opening Monday night Sanders urged his very vocal, very unhappy supporters who were still calling for a "political revolution" to get behind Clinton to defeat GOP nominee Donald Trump in November.

"By these measures, any objective observer will conclude that — based on her ideas and her leadership — Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States. The choice is not even close," Sanders said.

Sanders was booed by his own supporters at an event he held Monday afternoon, and during the convention proceedings his supporters continued to jeer every time Clinton's name was mentioned.

Sometimes, the person who makes the formal nomination can simply be a close ally of the candidate. At the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of Donald Trump's most prominent allies, put Trump's name into nomination. It can also be one of the party's most prominent leaders — at the 2012 convention, former President Bill Clinton formally renominated President Obama.

Should Sanders formally nominate Clinton, it will echo Clinton's call in 2008 for a nomination of Obama by acclamation. That was considered a strong show of party unity after her long primary battle against Obama.

Jessica Taylor is a political reporter with NPR based in Washington, DC, covering elections and breaking news out of the White House and Congress. Her reporting can be heard and seen on a variety of NPR platforms, from on air to online. For more than a decade, she has reported on and analyzed House and Senate elections and is a contributing author to the 2020 edition of The Almanac of American Politics and is a senior contributor to The Cook Political Report.
Danielle Kurtzleben is a political correspondent assigned to NPR's Washington Desk. She appears on NPR shows, writes for the web, and is a regular on The NPR Politics Podcast. She is covering the 2020 presidential election, with particular focuses on on economic policy and gender politics.
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