When groups affiliated with BLM held a presidential candidate forum in November, she was the only major Democratic candidate absent, as both Martin O’Malley and Senator Bernie Sanders attended.
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“You know your story is so incredibly moving and it’s also a story for so many people, that’s what I keep finding, everywhere I go”, Clinton told Thompson in a video of the exchange provided by the campaign.
Roemer’s comments crystallize a risk Clinton faces as she courts organized labor – a potential enthusiasm gap. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, has racked up a string of formal endorsements, still many rank-and-file union members stay drawn to Sanders. Against this, Sanders has notched two national endorsements, for about 385,000 members. The voting bloc is a must-win for Sanders, who’s trailing Clinton in Iowa and beating her in New Hampshire polls. Within it, Clinton discussed her history of working on various issues in health care. She was, in fact, the most dominant front-runner since, well, Hillary Clinton eight years ago.
And many labor leaders view Clinton as more electable in a general election than Sanders.
According to USA Today, Sanders’ idea was also shared by his fellow Democratic presidential candidates vowing to provide protection to 11 million undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. However, his plan is the first to expand security to immigrants who have already been deported back to their home countries. Her commanding lead over Sanders has widened in recent weeks, but the passion gap indicates Clinton has more work to do in wooing union workers.
But neither of them have gone as far as Sanders’ new proposal.
And while Sanders can’t be blamed for clinging to campaign themes that worked so well for him earlier, he is dangerously close to being written off as a Johnny One Note on the economy, one who lacks the experience or depth of knowledge of defense and foreign policy issues to qualify as the country’s next commander in chief.
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Though Clinton announced in October that she would stop accepting “direct donations from private prison lobbyists”, BLM supporters have called her out on accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy donors” in regions that maintain a strong “economic disparity” with neighboring areas. Clinton struggled to overcome major controversies over her use of a private email server during her four years heading the State Department and the tens of millions of dollars that she and her husband raked in giving speeches.
