Presidential Race 2016: D.C. Goes to Hillary Clinton in Democrats' Final Primary

Hillary Clinton finished out a twisting, turning and surprisingly lengthy primary season with a win against Bernie Sanders in Washington, D.C., Tuesday - the final test before Democrats' nominating convention in Philadelphia next month.

Polls in the nation's capital closed at 8 p.m., and the Associated Press called the contest for Clinton at 8:45 p.m.

Now, according to the wire service, the two candidates are holed up at a D.C. hotel - presumably talking policy, as Sanders looks to leverage his hard-fought campaign into influence on key policy issues. 

Last week's final "Super Tuesday" round of contests clinched Clinton's lead in the popular vote, as well as pledged delegates. In what has increasingly felt like a symbolic gesture, Sanders maintained his pledge to fight on to Washington, D.C.

He and Clinton planned to meet after Tuesday's vote, the senator from Vermont said Sunday.

"I will be meeting, as I understand it, on Tuesday night with Secretary Clinton, and I will get a sense from her about the nature of the Democratic platform. ...These are issues that have got to be dealt with, and I look forward to sitting down with Sec. Clinton to see what kind of platform she is going to support and in fact how aggressive she is going to be in addressing the major crises that we face," Sanders said in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation."

That conversation, Sanders said, will determine "how closely we can work with Clinton" - depending on her platform.

Clinton, meanwhile, is out of primary mode and into the general election campaign, after last week marking her "milestone" victory as the first female candidate to lead a major party presidential ticket. A planned kickoff appearance with the president this week was cancelled in favor of a a national security speech, delivered Monday in the wake of Sunday's tragic shooting in Orlando.

In that time, Sanders has met with President Obama and other party leaders and cut significant portions of his staff.

In an email message to supporters mid-day Tuesday, Sanders said he will give a live, video address Thursday night "about what's next for our campaign."

"After today, the voting is done, but our political revolution continues," the email said. "When we started this campaign, I told you that I was running not to oppose any man or woman, but to propose new and far-reaching policies to deal with the crises of our time. And for the past fourteen months, through the entire primary process, we’ve sent the establishment a message they can’t ignore: we won’t settle for the status quo."

Nominating convention in sight, Clinton is already looking past it to the fight against Republicans' presumptive nominee - the unpredictable Donald Trump. She's taken to his turf in the past week, engaging the brash reality TV star on Twitter and - in light of tragic events in Orlando - embarking on a national security-centered series of speeches.

>> Photo credit Gage Skidmore, Flickr/Creative Commons

>> Story updated 9:49 p.m.