California or bust? Clinton hopes to strike gold in pivotal vote

US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign stop in Sacramento, California, United States June 5, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON/LONG BEACH, California - If Hillary Clinton ends up losing California to Bernie Sanders, it will be because of voters like Nallely Perez.

Perez personifies what a Clinton supporter was supposed to look like: a 24-year-old Latina who grew up idolizing the former first lady as a groundbreaking woman in politics. But when she votes in California's Democratic presidential nominating contest on Tuesday, Perez will be supporting Sanders.

"Everything that I would stand for, he has said it," said Perez, a student at California State University, Long Beach, who said she likes Sanders' promises of tuition-free college and universal healthcare. "We found our voice in him."

California is the final big contest in the long, bitter fight for the Democratic nomination. Opinion polls show the Democratic race there tightening in recent weeks. Where Clinton, a former secretary of state, once held a big lead over Sanders, a US senator from Vermont, the two now are nearly tied.

A University of Southern California/Los Angeles Times poll released on Friday showed Sanders with a one-percentage-point lead over Clinton in the state, 44 to 43 percent, a swing from March when Clinton held a nine-point edge.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump has earned the nomination for the Nov. 8 election, and Clinton is close to capturing the number of delegates she needs to head the Democratic ticket. Her campaign expects that a win in New Jersey earlier on Tuesday will secure the nomination.

But a loss in a populous Democratic stronghold like California could lend credence to Trump's claim that she is a weakened candidate.

"Clinton would like to go to the nominating convention with the wind at her back and tamp down the perception that she doesn't excite Democrats," said Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist in Washington.

A Sanders victory will not clear the way to his nomination unless it triggers a defection by scores of superdelegates - party office-holders and officials - from Clinton's camp, an unlikely outcome.

Sanders has vowed to use California as a springboard to the party convention in Philadelphia in July. A win, especially a big one, would validate the self-described democratic socialist's decision to stay in the race to the end and give him leverage to influence Clinton's policies and cabinet picks.

"The game he is playing is to be able to draw as many concessions as he can out of the party and the Clinton campaign," Mollineau said.