Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is joined by her husband former U.S. President Bill Clinton, her running mate U.S. Sen.
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“As of tomorrow, we have 100 days to make our case”, Clinton said at a rousing rally at Temple University here. Tim Kaine (Va.), moved deep into potential Donald Trump country.
Clinton and Kaine continued their “Stronger Together” tour Saturday with a late-afternoon rally in Pittsburgh and an evening event in Youngstown, Ohio.
However, a loss in Pennsylvania would mean Trump would have to find wins in such Midwestern industrial states as MI (last won by a Republican in 1988), Minnesota (1972) and Wisconsin (1984).
Cambria County, home of the Johnstown Wire Technologies plant that Clinton and Kaine toured Saturday, is about 90 percent white with a median household income below $50,000. Barack Obama won it in 2008, George W. Bush in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000. In the average of national polls compiled by RealClearPolitics, Trump was three points behind Hillary Clinton before Cleveland; now he’s one point ahead.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that every election is important in its own way, but I can’t think of an election that was more important in my lifetime”, Clinton told thousands of supporters in a West Philadelphia arena.
“I’ve had a lovely, I’ve had a flawless campaign”, he said.
Earlier in the evening, a text went out to Bernie Sanders supporters from the Vermont senator’s camp asking they extend “respect” to HRC as her supporters showed him during his July 25 speech to the convention. “It’s the workers and the builders”.
Beyond winning the 13 states that GOP nominees have taken in the past six presidential races, Trump must also win some combination of battleground states – including Colorado, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The state has voted Democrat in each presidential election from 1992 forward, including for both terms of President Bill Clinton, based largely on Democratic strength in cities and union households.
Clinton is accompanying his wife on the bus tour, which echoes the heartland trip he took with Gore upon winning the Democratic nomination in 1992. It is the type of heavily white region where Trump must run up significant margins of victory if he hopes to win the state, which is seen as central to his electoral success.
The Clinton team projected confidence they could hold Pennsylvania for two key reasons: organization and numbers.
“We beat her by millions on television”. Trump asked. “I’ve been nice”.
“I don’t think we’re weak”.
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Clinton, in a statement released by the campaign, also offered praise for the family of Humayun Khan, a Muslim and an Army captain who died in Iraq. Nielsen measures 10 commercial broadcast and cable networks; PBS separately reported that Clinton drew 3.9 million Thursday, compared with 2.8 million for Trump last week.
