Hillary Clinton finds herself campaigning in Kentucky after Donald Trump has already clinched the Republican presidential nomination, and as she fights to end Bernie Sanders’ 19 state winning streak in a state that last voted for a Democratic president when her husband narrowly won the state during his reelection bid, her campaign is attempting a delicate balancing act to win over skeptical progressives while promising a return to a more moderate Clinton economic agenda.
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“It is a great honor to be here with you and I hope to earn your support in the primary on Tuesday”, Clinton said at St. Stephens Baptist Church in Southwest Louisville on Sunday.
According to top Clinton surrogate Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, however, the calculus on picking a progressive running mate could change if Sanders agrees to aggressively campaign for Clinton – suggesting that Clinton’s commitment to a more populist approach may be more about campaigning then governing.
In the audience for Clinton at the Louisville rally Sunday was local resident Nancy Hatcher, 69, who said she liked Clinton’s experience, though said she wasn’t sure if she could win in Kentucky. Dooley shook her hand and responded: “I will not vote for you, I will never vote for you”, Dooley said.
Bernie Sanders, has taken to focusing on Trump in her stump speeches, knocking the unexpected presumptive Republican nominee as unfit for the job and unsafe to foreign relations. Adding superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate, Clinton holds a much wider lead. “I guess, if you were to evaluate our position, I think I came out on the better side of that”.
“There is a big difference in this primary campaign between me and my opponent, Bernie Sanders”.
But Sanders says “if voter turnout is high, we will win”.
Clinton only briefly mentioned Sanders at both events, repeating a critique that he did not vote to fund the auto industry bailout. Sanders would beat Trump 47% to 41% in Georgia, due in part to his ability to outperform Clinton among white voters there.
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One reason for the Clinton campaign’s stepped up confidence in Kentucky is that the primary is closed, meaning only registered Democrats can participate. “I’m somebody’s who’s in favor of transparency and openness”.
