Clinton Closes Out Primary Season With Huge DC Win

(CN) - Hillary Clinton closed out the 2016 presidential primary season with a huge win overshadowed both by the Orlando mass shooting and questions about the future of her Democratic party.

With just over 60 percent of the vote counted as of 9 p.m. Tuesday night, Clinton held a whopping 58 percentage point lead over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in Washington, D.C.'s Democratic primary. And that margin of victory was expected to hold.

In the meantime, with the polls closed and the primaries behind them, Clinton and Sanders sat down for a face-to-face meeting that is expected to set the tone both for next month's party convention in Philadelphia and the general election ahead.

In effect, the meeting marked the beginning of a transition from rivalry to a unified campaign to defeat presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump.

But even as he vowed again Tuesday to do all he can to prevent Trump from reaching the White House, the Vermont senator declined to endorse Clinton before their sit-down.

Instead, he sent an email to supporters with a subject line reading "The Political Revolution Continues" announcing that he will speak to them in a live, online video message Thursday night.

"Our goal must not be to allow politicians, Donald Trump or anyone else, to divide us," Sanders said outside his Washington headquarters Tuesday afternoon.

He also said he would continue to "fight as hard as we can" to transform the Democratic Party.

Sanders said that when he spoke with Clinton Tuesday night, he would push for new leadership for the Democratic National Committee, including the removal of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz as party's chair.

He also said he wants to see the progressive ideas his supporters embraced during his 15-month campaign incorporated into the Democratic party platform.

And he said he wanted to see significant changes to how the Democrats select presidential candidates, including allowing independents to participate in all party primaries and the elimination of superdelegates that many Sanders supporters believe gave Clinton an unfair advantage throughout the race.

"We need major, major changes in the Democratic Party," he said.

Earlier Tuesday, Sanders met with Senate Democrats at their weekly luncheon, and was warmly received as he spoke of his campaign.

Lawmakers in attendance said Sanders did not indicate his future plans.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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