(CNN)The Democratic race for president will take another twist on Thursday when Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clash in their first face-to-face debate since the Iowa caucuses.
Advertisement
Campaign aides say more than 770,000 individual contributions poured in over the course of January, pushing the total number of Sanders’ donations past the 3.2 million mark, a milestone not seen before at this stage in presidential campaigns.
After the Iowa caucuses wrapped-up late Monday-the majority of candidates, including Vermont US Senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, headed to New Hampshire. That was after Clinton’s campaign manager referred to New Hampshire as Sanders’ “backyard”.
Clinton has sought a debate in Flint to bring attention to the city’s water contamination crisis and Sanders said he wanted it to be scheduled before the MI primary on March 8. “Working Americans chipping in a few dollars each month are not only challenging but beating the greatest fundraising machine ever assembled”, he said in a statement. Clinton said she was amused that Sanders considered himself as the “gatekeeper” of what it means to be a progressive. So he needs to follow up his good showing in Iowa with electrifying results in New Hampshire.
Sanders added that it was hard to take on the establishment “when you become as dependent as she has through her super PAC and in other ways on Wall Street or drug company money”.
Sanders’ razor-thin loss in the Iowa caucuses Monday, and his formidable lead in New Hampshire polls, have heightened the possibility that the two remaining Democrats will be involved in a protracted fight for the nomination.
The two made their rival cases in interviews and appearances around New Hampshire and in back-to-back appearances at a town-hall style forum on CNN on Wednesday night.
Clinton claims she’s a “progressive who wants to make progress”, a dig at what she suggests are Sanders’ pie-in-the-sky ideas.
Clinton said she found it amusing that the senator thinks he can be the “gatekeeper” of who’s progressive.
But Clinton accused the Sanders campaign of moving the goalposts on the issue.
“We are in this until the convention”, Sanders told reporters on Tuesday.
But with her Iowa victory in her back pocket, and as she looks forward to looming nominating elections in SC and Nevada where she is a strong favorite, Clinton can enjoy a short vacation from expectations in New Hampshire.
Advertisement
“I respect the fact that I have work to do”, said Clinton.
