HFA Increasing Focus on Getting Women Out to Vote

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.

For all the latest, follow our Scheduled Events page and follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Also, be sure to subscribe to the campaign’s official Podcast, With Her.

Hillary Clinton Proposes Rapid Response Fund to Fight Pandemics

Hillary Clinton proposed a new Public Health Rapid Response Fund to deal with pandemics such as Zika virus. Clinton has urged Congress to pass federal funding to assist areas infested with Zika carrying mosquitoes, but Congress has failed to do so. Clinton said that the fund would be available to assist “the CDC, HHS, FEMA, state and local public health departments, hospital systems, and other federal agencies” respond to any public health crisis. A copy of the release from Hillary for America is below.

“The United States faces new threats to public health, from pandemic diseases like those caused by the Ebola and the Zika viruses, to the risk of biological weapons and bioterrorism, to long-term challenges like more extreme weather and expanding ranges for Lyme disease and water-borne illnesses as a result of climate change. And in a global economy, diseases like SARS, MERS, and avian influenza cannot be contained in their countries of origin.

“But despite these threats, we are not investing in public health preparedness and emergency response the way we should to keep our families and communities safe. A 2015 study found that spending on public health had fallen more than 9 percent since 2008. And uncertain long-term budgets leave our public health agencies dependent on emergency appropriations—meaning that when Congress fails to step up, communities are left without the resources they need, vaccines languish in development, and more people get sick.

That is why as President, I will create a Public Health Rapid Response Fund, with consistent, year-to-year budgets, to better enable the CDC, HHS, FEMA, state and local public health departments, hospital systems, and other federal agencies to quickly and aggressively respond to major public health crises and pandemics. I will also ensure that our government has strong leadership and is organized to better support and work with people on the ground facing public health challenges. Doctors and public health experts have been warning for months that the Zika virus was likely to reach the continental United States, but Congress has failed to pass the President’s emergency funding request. As a result, the Zika virus has gained a foothold in Miami, and 196 people have already been infected in the city—infections that may have been preventable. 

In addition, we need to do more to boost our preparedness for biological threats and bioweapons; to support research for new diagnostic tests, therapeutic treatments, and vaccines for emerging diseases; to build capacity in public health departments; to train the next cadre of public health professionals and ensure that public health and environmental health practices are standard to the educations of medical students; and to provide resources for states and local governments to plan for complex, multi-faceted public health threats, like the impacts of climate change, and build more resilient communities.”

For all the latest, follow our Scheduled Events page and follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Also, be sure to subscribe to the campaign’s official Podcast, With Her.

News Source: Politico