On Friday, Jay-Z performed at a Get Out the Vote concert in Cleveland, Ohio on behalf of Hillary Clinton. During the concert, he was joined on stage by his wife, Beyoncé, and Clinton. Beyoncé spoke about the importance of the election and said that she wants her daughter to have a role model in the White House. “We have to think about the future of our daughters, of our sons, and vote for someone who cares for them as much as we do. And that is why, ‘I’m with her.'” Jay-Z introduced Clinton and spoke about the progress made in the country and criticized Donald Trump for his divisive tone. Clinton then spoke briefly about what is at stake during this election and encouraged everyone to vote on Tuesday. Videos of the speeches give by Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Clinton are below.
Chelsea Clinton campaigned on behalf of mother today in Wisconsin. Chelsea spoke at events in La Crosse, Stevens Point, and Madison, and at each, she focused on the importance of voting because this election will have a profound impact on everyone’s future, and as a mother, electing Donald Trump concerns her. “Whomever we elect to replace President Obama will help shape the future for my children and your children and grandchildren,” she said. She spoke about a number of Hillary Clinton’s platform points including her plans to promote economic growth, create jobs, raise the minimum wage, and make college more affordable. Chelsea concluded each event by urging everyone to vote and to take advantage of the early voting available in the state. A video from the event in Stevens City is below and videos from the other events today will be added when/if available.
Anne Holton and Jill Biden campaigned together in Pennsylvania. Speaking at events in Philadelphia and Pheonixville, Holton and Biden focused on the blueprint for America presented by Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine and how it stands in stark contrast from Donald Trump’s vision for America. Biden said that she is tired of Trump’s comments about women saying, “It sickens us. I’m not sure what to say to my daughters and granddaughters who ask, ‘Is this what politics has become?’ It’s hard to explain as a mother and grandmother.”
Holton explained what it has been like working with Clinton the last few months. She explained that she does not only support Clinton because of her party affiliation, but because she is truly knowledgeable about the issues. “I’ve loved getting to be with her on the campaign trail. She’s such a good listener. Yes, she’s a policy wonk. We all know that. She’s a very serious person. I want a serious person in the Oval Office. Her policies come from talking to people. I see the way she talks to the campaign bus driver and the factory line worker, asking about the work-family balance. She connects what she hears from them to inform her policy,” Holton said. Videos from today’s events will be posted when/if available.
Meanwhile, a series of fundraisers were held on behalf of Hillary for America. The first was held in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and featured a conversation with Laura Rosenberger, Foreign Policy Advisor. Actress Selma Hayek Pinault spoke at a fundraising event in Austin, Texas. In Massachusetts, former Congressman Barney Frank and Jimmy Tingle attended fundraising events in Newton and Jamaica Plain.
On Friday, Hillary for America released the following statement about their efforts to get women, both Democrats and Republicans, out to vote on November 8th.
Following First Lady Michelle Obama’s powerful speech outlining the stakes of this election for American women, Hillary for America is dispatching top women surrogates to battleground states across America, as well as deepening its concentrated national effort to emphasize the troubling accusations against Donald Trump and his degrading comments about women to women voters. The Clinton campaign will have hundreds of events nationwide this weekend to contact women voters, including many Republican women, and urge them to register, vote early or get out the vote for Clinton ahead of November.
In addition, Hillary for America is launching a new call team feature to its voter call tool, including a new “FLOTUS Call Team,” where supporters can join together as a community around the First Lady’s statement that “enough is enough” and make phone calls to turn out voters for Clinton in the election. Additionally, on Saturday, women’s health advocate Cecile Richards will join her daughter, Hillary for America’s Lily Adams, for a Facebook Live on Hillary for America’s Facebook page to launch their own “Mother-Daughter Team” to contact voters and echo Obama’s message.
“This week has further shown just how high the stakes are for women in this election,” said Mini Timmaraju, Hillary for America’s Women’s Vote Director. “Donald Trump believes women are to be degraded and demeaned, while Hillary Clinton has been fighting for women’s rights for 40 years, with concrete plans to support them and their families as president. Our campaign is mobilizing women disgusted by Trump to organize their communities and get out the vote for Clinton, either during early voting or on Election Day.”
Hillary for America’s state campaigns will focus their organizing activities on women this weekend, launching women-to-women phone banks, canvasses, voter registration drives and Get Out the Early Vote events across critical battlegrounds. Recent polls show that Trump is lagging badly among women voters — woefully underperforming 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney in critical, vote-rich areas like the Philadelphia suburbs — giving Clinton an opening to further widen the gender gap, effectively walling off Trump’s capacity to make the gains he needs to win.
Additionally, starting today, top Clinton supporters and surrogates are hitting the campaign trail to emphasize the choice women have in this election. Today, for example, Chelsea Clinton was in Pittsburgh, urging women on campus at Pitt to reject Trump’s offensive candidacy, while Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado joined local athletes to reject Trump’s defense of his degrading comments as “locker room talk.” Additionally, Eva Longoria urged Latinas to register to vote in Orlando and EMILY’s List president Stephanie Schriock did grassroots organizing activity in North Carolina, while former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will give remarks decrying recent Trump revelations tonight in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
This weekend, Anne Holton will campaign in North Florida, focusing on reaching out to women voters, while members of Congress like Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Grace Meng, Sheila Jackson Lee, Donna Edwards, Brenda Lawrence and Barbara Lee join actors and activists like Alfre Woodard, Connie Britton, Danai Gurira, Marlo Thomas, Naturi Naughton, Erika Alexander, Busy Philipps, NARAL president Ilyse Hogue and former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to campaign across Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Florida, Nevada, Iowa, Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin, to spread Clinton’s message that women need someone who will fight for — not degrade — them in the White House.
First Lady of Arkansas Hillary Rodham Clinton with her daughter Chelsea, 13th May 1984. (Photo by Mike Stewart/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)
Today, an op-ed by Hillary Clinton was published by Fortune magazine. In the article, Clinton discusses what she learned from being a working mother. She writes about how she had to struggle her career as a lawyer and raising her daughter. She goes to say that while progress has been made, more needs to be done. Clinton then outlines a number of her proposals aimed at helping working and single mothers including raising the minimum wage, ensuring that women receive equal pay, ensuring everyone has access to affordable childcare, and providing paid leave for new parents. Read the full op-ed below or on Fortune.
Hillary Clinton: What I Learned From Being a Mom Who Works September 29, 2016
We’ve made progress, but have a ways to go.
When I was pregnant with my daughter Chelsea, I asked about the maternity leave policy at the law firm where I worked. I was surprised to find out that we didn’t have one. I soon learned why: No woman who worked in our office had ever come back to work full-time after having a baby.
Well, I wanted to come back. I loved what I did. And it was important to me to contribute to my family’s finances, especially now that we were having a baby.
Finally, as my due date approached, I decided to take matters into my own hands. When Chelsea was born, my employer agreed to grant me four months off to be home with her. I’d still earn an income, though it would be smaller; part of my income was determined by the fees I generated for the firm, which would fall to zero while I was on leave. That made sense to me. And it meant a lot that I could have that time with my new daughter, knowing that my job would be waiting for me when I came back.
These kinds of situations are commonplace today, with more women entering the workforce than ever before. Today, nearly half of all full-time employees are women. Through our contributions, talent, insights, and very presence, we’ve changed the workplace forever. There’s no going back to the days when women were fired for getting married or pregnant, or were excluded from entire professions. Thank goodness.
But let’s be real. We still have a long way to go. Our policies just haven’t kept up with the challenges women and families face today.
Too many women still aren’t paid fairly. On average, women earn 20% less than men do for full-time, year-round work. Women of color earn even less. And when a working mom or grandmother earns less than she deserves, she’s not the only one who pays the price. Her children or grandchildren—whoever’s counting on her salary—do, too.
Women also make up the majority of minimum-wage workers, which means they make as little as $14,500 a year for full-time work. That’s below the national poverty line. Many of those women are raising kids on that income. Raising the federal minimum wage would do a lot for those families.
Meanwhile, even though the number of women running companies, labs, universities, and philanthropies is growing, it’s still too small. So is the number of women serving in elected office. That means women aren’t always included in decision-making, and their needs and concerns aren’t always reflected in government policy or workplace norms.
And we’re making it too hard to balance work and family. That’s true for all parents, but especially mothers. Women are breadwinners in more households than ever, yet they still do the lion’s share of childcare.
Many are feeling the squeeze. I’ve had moms break down in tears as they describe the heartbreak of returning to work just a few days after delivering their baby, because they don’t have paid leave at their jobs. Staying with their child for a few months would mean losing too many paychecks, maybe even their job.
In April, I met a mom in Newton, Iowa, who held her four-and-a-half-month-old in her arms. She said to me, “I’m counting on you to know what it’s like to be a working mother. Please help us working mothers and fathers have more time with our babies.”
I’m not going to let her down.
One thing we can do is invest in affordable childcare. Right now, childcare is more expensive than college tuition in many states. Let’s make sure no family has to spend more than 10% of their income on childcare by making historic investments in childcare assistance and providing tax relief to working families.
Let’s finally join every other advanced economy in the world and guarantee paid leave. I’m proposing 12 weeks of paid medical leave to recover from a serious illness, and 12 weeks of paid family leave to care for a new child or a sick relative. After all, moms and dads both deserve to spend time with their babies.
Let’s encourage employers to adopt family-friendly work policies, like flexible and fair scheduling and tele-work, so parents can both work and be there for their families.
Let’s raise the minimum wage. No one who works full-time should be forced to raise their kids in poverty.
And at long last, let’s finally ensure equal pay for women. It’s time for Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act—which I cosponsored when I was in the Senate—to give women the tools they need to fight discrimination in the workforce. We also need to promote pay transparency so that women have the information they need to negotiate fairly for their wages.
These aren’t just women’s issues. They’re economic issues and family issues. And they need to be a top priority for our next president. If we’re going to build a globally competitive workforce, we can’t afford to leave any talent on the sidelines. We can’t keep short-changing working families.
I’ll never forget what it was like to be a mom at work. It wasn’t easy. And I was lucky: I had financial security, a supportive employer, and affordable childcare. Too many families don’t. I’ve met so many parents stuck in impossible situations, at their wits’ ends trying to make it all work. It just shouldn’t be this hard to work and have a family.
As president, it’ll be my mission to bring our economy and workplaces into the 21st century, so all of our contributions are respected—both women’s and men’s—and families can thrive.
The members of the Mothers of the Movement group spent Monday and Tuesday of this week campaigning on behalf of Hillary Clinton across North Carolina. The group of three mothers, united by the loss of a child due to gun violence, held a series of roundtable discussions and community events in Fayetteville, Durham, Greensboro, and Charlotte. At each event, the group told their stories and discussed a number of points outlined by Clinton including her plans for criminal justice reform and her proposal to reduce gun violence.
The mothers taking part in each event were Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner; Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland; and Maria Hamilton, the mother of Dontre Hamilton. Videos from the events will be posted when/if available.
Also on Tuesday, two fundraisers were held on behalf of Hillary for America in Denver, Colorado. Each of the events featured a conversation with Maya Harris, HFA Senior Policy Advisor.
On the final night of the Democratic National Convention, everyone awaited the acceptance speech of Hillary Clinton. Clinton was introduced by Chelsea Clinton, then a short biographical video was shown. She then took the stage and spoke about her vision for the future. Her vision is one of growth and prosperity for the nation and all Americans. She offered a plan that is in stark contrast from the vision presented last week during the Republican National Convention. Clinton criticized Donald Trump’s characterization that he alone has all the answers and can solve all of America’s problems. She said, “Americans don’t say ‘I alone can fix it.’ We say, ‘we’ll fix it together.'”
Clinton’s speech was more personal in nature as she reintroduces herself to the American people. She spoke about her mother, daughter, and grandchildren and what has driven her throughout her career. The reason for her dedication is quite simple: public service. The DNC’s biography video and Clinton’s speech focused on her public service experience including many things that she has done without fanfare. Overall the speech was a more personal message than we typically hear from Clinton. She was filled with gratitude for her supporters, emotion, and energy for the long campaign ahead. Watch the DNC’s biography video and Clinton’s acceptance speech below.
The final night included a number of other key speeches including addresses from Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Women of the Senate, Representative Joaquin Castro, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, Khizr Khan, General John Allen, Senator Sherrod Brown, and a musical performance by Katy Perry. Chelsea Clinton introduced Hillary with a personal speech full of stories form her childhood and how her mother has been there for her, and how she is always available for her grandchildren. A selection of videos from the night are below and a full collection of videos from the convention can be found on YouTube.
Now that the convention is over and Clinton is officially the nominee for the Democratic Party, the work is just beginning. For all the latest, follow our Scheduled Events page and follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
On Saturday, Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky announced the birth of their son Aidan Clinton Mezvinsky. He is the second child of Chelsea and Marc. Their daughter, Charlotte, was born in 2014. Both Hillary and Bill Clinton had light schedules this weekend and several wondered if the impending birth of their second grandchild was the reason. A statement released by former President Clinton said, “We are all over the moon as Chelsea and Marc welcome Charlotte’s little brother to the world and grateful for our many blessings. Chelsea and Aidan are both doing well and enjoying this very special time together.”
We congratulate the parents and look forward to seeing both of Clinton’s grandchildren on the campaign trail!
Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky announced on Twitter their daughter, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky, was born this morning. The tweet was retweeted by grandparents Bill and Hillary Clinton. Congratulations to the Clinton and Mezvinsky familes!
Marc and I are full of love, awe and gratitude as we celebrate the birth of our daughter, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.
Hillary Clinton Speeches 