Senator Bernie Sanders announced today that he is joining the 2016 race for president which prompted a warm welcome from Hillary Rodham Clinton on Twitter. Senator Sanders is an Independent from Vermont, but he intends to run for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.
News Source: ABC News
Yesterday, Hillary Rodham Clinton was in New York to attend a number of fundraisers with Wall Street business executives, but today, she took part in the David N. Dinkins Leadership & Public Policy Forum at Columbia University where she spoke openly about the issues facing the justice system. Following protests in Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore, and other states, Clinton had strong statements about the need to reform aspects of the justice system. While she condemned the violent measures taken by some of the protesters in Baltimore, she admitted that there is a lot of work to be done to ensure that racial bias does not hinder justice.
She said, “Not only as a mother and grandmother, but as a citizen, a human being, my heart breaks for these young men and their families. We have to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice in America.” She went to say that we need to reconsider the system that relies on incarceration and turn our focus to a “true national debate about how to reduce our prison population while keeping our communities safe.” Clinton admitted that she didn’t have all the answers, but rising costs and incarceration rates require coming up with meaningful solutions.
This was the first time since announcing her candidacy for the presidency that Clinton has talked about a policy that could become a centerpiece of her platform. The full video from the event is available above.
News Source: Bloomberg, New York Times
Next week, Hillary Rodham Clinton takes her presidential campaign to Nevada and California. On Tuesday, May 5 Clinton will take her “Ramp Up” campaign to Nevada where she is expected to visit several cities. Nevada is a state that Clinton’s team is hoping to win in 2016 and it has been an early focus on the campaign. You can follow Hillary for Nevada on Twitter and Facebook.
Later in the week (May 7-9) Clinton will begin a three day campaign trip in California where she will headline several high profile fundraisers in Hollywood. She is also expected to focus on the grassroots effort similar to her recent trips to Iowa and New Hampshire.
We will post a full wrap-up of both next week. In the meantime, keep up to date with all the latest campaign news by following Clinton on Twitter and Facebook. And don’t forget to donate to the campaign.
New Source: Los Angeles Time, Las Vegas Sun
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Hillary Rodham Clinton gave the keynote address at the Women in the World Summit in New York City. In her first public speech since announcing her campaign for president, Clinton spoke about the struggles of women and girls to achieve equal rights and had strong words for her critics and political opponents. The speech was reminiscent of her famous “women’s rights are human rights” speech in 1995.
In her address, she criticized the delay of the appointment of Loretta Lynch as Attorney General and then, without naming names, she began calling out political opponents saying, “There are those who offer themselves as leaders … who see nothing wrong with denying women equal pay, who offer themselves as leaders who would de-fund the country’s leading provider of family planning and want to let health insurance companies once again charge women just because of our gender. There are those who offer themselves as leaders who would deport mothers working to give their children a better life, rather than risk the ire of talk radio.”
Clinton concluded by saying that there was still much work to be done in the realm of equal rights in the United States and around the world. But she expressed her optimism that equal rights can be achieved.
News Source: New York Daily News
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign spent Monday and Tuesday of this week in New Hampshire to continue the listening tour that she started last week in Iowa. The focus of Clinton’s visit was to meet with local students, business owners, and citizens to learn about what their concerns are. As noted last week in Iowa, Clinton is still in the process of building her 2016 platform, and her listening tour is intended to help in that process.
On Monday, Clinton stopped in Keene to speak to a roundtable of business owners and workers at Whitney Brothers. Her discussion focused on education, technical skills, and the challenges of small business ownership. The tone was similar to that in Iowa, as she is gathering a sampling of voices from across America on similar topics. She also visited Kristin’s Bistro and Bakery, a place she remembered from her first trip to New Hampshire in 1991.
On Tuesday, Clinton toured and met with students at New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord. She moderated a discussion with students and administrators where she stressed the importance of two year schools, but not one of the attendees asked a question. The rest of the day, Clinton made several unannounced stops in Concord before meeting with lawmakers.
Clinton’s next campaign stops have yet to be announced; however, many people have criticized Clinton for the cautious roll out of her campaign. But the general election is still over nineteen months away, so there is plenty of campaigning left to do. For now, the grassroots and localized events are a way for Clinton to meet with ordinary Americans before larger primary race begins.
You can see pictures from New Hampshire on the Hillary for America Facebook page and Flickr account. Also, be sure to follow Clinton’s Twitter account and donate to the campaign.
News Source: Boston.com, CNN, New York Daily News, Boston Globe
Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote a profile for Senator Elizabeth Warren that will appear in Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People issue. Warren is the strong Democrat who currently resides in the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat in Congress. She has been heralded by many for her strong stance on Wall Street bankers and her criticism of the current political climate. Warren is a strong force in the party, and Clinton recognizes that. There are members of her own party who would prefer Warren run for president in Clinton’s place. However, Clinton praises Warren in the profile for Time and her role as a “champion of working families and scourge of special interests.” A copy of the profile is below:
It was always going to take a special kind of leader to pick up Ted Kennedy’s mantle as senior Senator from Massachusetts—champion of working families and scourge of special interests. Elizabeth Warren never lets us forget that the work of taming Wall Street’s irresponsible risk taking and reforming our financial system is far from finished. And she never hesitates to hold powerful people’s feet to the fire: bankers, lobbyists, senior government officials and, yes, even presidential aspirants.
Elizabeth Warren’s journey from janitor’s daughter to Harvard professor to public watchdog to U.S. Senator has been driven by an unflagging determination to level the playing field for hardworking American families like the one she grew up with in Oklahoma. She fights so hard for others to share in the American Dream because she lived it herself.
Source: Time
After meeting with a few Iowans this morning, Hillary Rodham Clinton has left Iowa. But she will be back on a campaign trail next week as she visits New Hampshire on Monday and Tuesday. Clinton is expected to meet with local voters, students, business owners, and politicians as she did in Iowa. Her listening tour will continue as she builds her campaign platform.
In the meantime, keep up to date with all the latest campaign news by following Clinton’s Twitter account and Facebook page. And don’t forget to donate to the campaign.
New Source: ABC News
On her second day in Iowa, Hillary Rodham Clinton continued to meet with potential voters and took part in a roundtable with small business owners from across central Iowa. The event, which took place at Capital City Fruit Company in Norwalk, focused on America’s reliance on small businesses, and the difficulty many small business owners face to start their business and to keep their doors open. Clinton said, “We need to be, we have to be, No. 1 again. Slowly over time it’s become more difficult — more expensive, more red tape, unnecessary regulations that have really put a damper.”
During the roundtable, one of the business owners referred to increasing costs in health care and Clinton spoke about health care and the Affordable Care Act. She acknowledged that was a problem, and said that she was interested in updating aspects of the law. This isn’t new for Clinton, however. In several speeches before announcing her candidacy, Clinton hinted that was open to changes to the ACA.
Other business owners brought up the difficulty of hiring immigrants and having to turn down able works because of the their immigrant status. Because immigration reform is currently stalled in Congress, businesses are stuck in the middle. Clinton blamed the lack of comprehensive immigration reform on political ideologies. She went on to say, “We are really missing out on economic opportunities because we haven’t been able to agree on comprehensive immigration reform.”
The event was a listening session where she encouraged the small business owners to talk openly. Clinton shied away from answering questions about her platform and plan for small businesses saying that she was still in the building phase and wanted to hear what people have to say before her platform is complete.
Today wrapped up Clinton’s visit to Iowa, where she also visited Des Moines and Marshalltown, but she promised that she would be back soon. She is expected to head to New Hampshire next where she will likely hold similar listening sessions with different groups of voters.
UPDATE: Hillary for America created a video highlighting Clinton’s trip to Iowa.
You can see pictures from Iowa on the Hillary for America Flickr page. Also, be sure to follow Clinton’s Twitter account and Facebook page. And don’t forget to donate to the campaign.
New Source: Politico, The Des Moines Register
Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked off her campaign by traveling (in a van she has nick-named “Scooby”) to Iowa. She made several appearances in the cities of Mount Vernon and Monticello. Instead of making stump speeches or meeting with donors, Clinton opted to meet with people going about their day. She stopped in and chatted with patrons at at least two coffee shops, walked down the street of LeClaire meeting with passers by and business owners, and she took part in a roundtable discussion with students at Kirkwood Community College. It is clear that Clinton’s early focus is reaching out to voters.
In her discussion at Kirwood Community College, Clinton began to outline her political platform referring to what she calls the “four big fights that I think we have to take on, because there are those who don’t agree with what I think we should be doing, and they’re pretty powerful forces.” The four big fights she referred to are: building an economy for America’s future, strengthening families and communities, reforming campaign finance, and continuing to focus on national security. Clinton will continue to flesh out her platform over the coming months.
Clinton is expected to make several more stops in Iowa tomorrow. You can get all the latest updates from Iowa by following Clinton’s Twitter account as well as the Hillary for Iowa Twitter account. And don’t forget to donate to the campaign.
New Source: CBS News, The Des Moines Register
Just hours after announcing her formal campaign, Clinton Tweeted a photo with a family she met while on her way to Iowa. Her first event in Iowa is on Tuesday because tomorrow will be driving day…that’s right, Clinton is literally taking her campaign on the road. Clinton will meet with everyday Americans along the route and when she arrives in Iowa. This is part of a grassroots strategy to focus on the American people.
Follow along on Twitter and don’t forget to support Hillary for America.
Hillary Clinton Speeches 