Triumphant Clinton claims victory as the first woman Democratic nominee

Hillary Clinton put new cracks in the nation's 'highest, hardest glass ceiling' tonight as she became the first woman to win the popular vote in a major party's primary.

Speaking to her supporters from Brooklyn, New York, just down the road from her national campaign office, Clinton said her accomplishment belongs not just to her - 'tonight belongs to all of you.'

'It is not about one person, it belongs to generations of women and men,' the 68-year-old former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state, said, proclaiming herself the 'Democratic nominee.'

Paying tribute to her 2008 speech at the end of the line, when she narrowly lost the nomination to Barack Obama, Clinton told her supporters, 'It may be hard to see tonight, but we are all standing under a glass ceiling right now.'

'This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on anybody.'

After the polls closed in California, Obama called Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the White House said.

'The president congratulated Secretary Clinton for securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic Nomination for President. Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children.'

Clinton reflected on her 2008 loss tonight to the sitting president as she addressed supporters of her current opponent, Sanders, telling them, 'It never feels good to put your heart into a candidate and come up short,' she said. 'I know that feeling well.'

She had no harsh words for Sanders, who was on the West Coast when Clinton spoke, in California, where polls were scheduled to close within minutes. She reserved those for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who she called 'unfit' for office and a 'bully.'

Sanders' response to her declarations? An email to supporters while she was still speaking announcing a rally Thursday in Washington, D.C., the same day he'll meet with President Obama, at his request.

Sanders spoke to his supporters at around 2 a.m. EST, telling a frenzied crowd he was staying in the fight.

'Thank you, the struggle continues,' Sanders told his raucous crowd, gathered at an airport hangar in Santa Monica.

Hillary Clinton put new cracks in the nation's 'highest, hardest glass ceiling' tonight as she became the first woman to win the popular vote in a major party's primary.

Hillary is seen here with husband Bill Clinton, a former president himself, at her rally tonight in Brooklyn.

V is for Victory: Bill, Hillary and Chelsea are seen here after Clinton's rally in Brooklyn, near her national campaign headquarters.

As for Trump tonight, Clinton declared he was 'temperamentally unfit' to be president.

'He is not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico,' she said. 'He is trying to wall off Americans from each other.'

'When he says let's make America great again, that is code for let's take American backward,' she said.

Clinton reminded her audience of Trump's blunders this week – in his attacks on a Mexican-American judge – while noting how he once mocked a disabled reporter and called women 'pigs.'

'He wants to win by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds and reminding us daily just how great he is,' she said.

Beyond talking about her two political rivals, it was the memory of her mother that provided the most poignant moment.

Clinton remarked how the date that her mother Dorothy Howell Rodham was born – June 4, 1919 – was especially significant for women in history, as it's when the 19th Amendment passed.

'That amendment finally gave women the right to vote,' she noted.

'I really wish my mom could be here tonight,' Clinton continued.

Rodham passed away in 2011.

'I wish she could see what a wonderful mother Chelsea could become and meet her beautiful granddaughter Charlotte,' she said.

'I wish she could see her daughter become the Democratic Party's nominee,' she said. 

During her remarks tonight, Hillary Clinton reminded the audience that her mother was born the same day that the 19th Amendment, which allowed women to vote, had passed.

Already, the Associated Press had named Clinton the presumptive nominee, but tonight's results in New Jersey - which Clinton easily won - carried the two-time presidential candidate closer to formally winning the nomination at the Democratic national convention in July.

Tonight New Jersey quickly went to the former secretary of state.

Fox News gave Clinton the win in the Garden State just after 8pm Eastern. The Associated Press had Clinton beating Sanders by 14 points at half past the hour, 57-43.

Five more states cast ballots today, the largest of which was California, where voters have until 8pm Pacific Time - 11pm Eastern - to vote in their party primary.

Early results out of California showed Clinton ahead.

The Sanders camp did not realistically expect to win in New Jersey, which borders Clinton's adopted home state, New York.

He did, however, take the North Dakota caucus, with CNN projecting a win for the Vermont senator there.

Sanders' main focus is on California, where he will rally his own supporters later tonight in Santa Monica.

Should he lose every single state tonight, Sanders will stay in the race his campaign says, with a quick stop home in Burlington, Vermont and then a rally in Washington, D.C.

Democrats in the District have yet to vote, and he intends to stay in at least that long, if not all the way to the convention.

Clinton was named the presumptive Democratic nominee last night, first by the Associated Press and then others, after enough superdelegates said they planned to support the her at this summer's Democratic National Convention for her to hit the magic number - 2,383.

As soon as polls closed in the Garden State, Clinton's campaign sent reporters a memo that declared, 'After tonight, Hillary Clinton will have a majority of the votes, a majority of the pledged delegates and a majority of delegates overall.'

An official with the campaign emphasized that 'going into the primaries tonight, Hillary Clinton has over 13 million votes – a popular vote lead of more than 3 million – and 1809 pledged delegates – a lead of 289 according to the AP.

'This lead is nearly 3 times larger than President Obama’s pledged delegate lead of 106 when he clinched in 2008.

Trump, talking to the press in New York tonight, focused in on his rival promising a speech Monday that would discuss, ''All of things that have taken place with the Clintons.’

'I think you’re gonna find it very informative,' he added. 'I wonder if the press will want to attend?'

In California, however, Sanders carried on as usual.

As New Jersey was being called for his rival, the senator was in his motorcade riding between Los Angeles neighborhoods trying to get out the vote.

Hello Hollywood! Bernie Sanders did some last minute campaigning this afternoon in Los Angeles, dipping in to talk to potential voters on the Hollywood Walk of Stars.