Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign
In 2016, Hillary Clinton ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States. Clinton ran as the Democratic Party's candidate for president, in which she became the first woman to win a presidential nomination by a major U.S. political party. Prior to running, Clinton served as the United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator representing New York from 2001 to 2009, and the first lady of the United States, as the wife of Bill Clinton, from 1993 to 2001. She was defeated in the general election by the Republican candidate, businessman Donald Trump.
Clinton announced her candidacy on April 12, 2015. Her main competitor in the Democratic primaries was Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran as a more progressive candidate in the primary. Clinton became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party on June 6, 2016, having received the required number of delegates. On July 22, she announced Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate, and the two were formally nominated at the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 26.
Clinton received the most support from middle aged and older voters, as well as from African-American, Latino, and older female voters. She focused her platform on several issues, including expanding racial, LGBTQ, and women's rights; raising wages and ensuring equal pay for women; and improving healthcare.
Clinton lost the general election to Republican Donald Trump on November 9, 2016; she conceded the following day. Clinton's narrow, unprecedented losses in the blue wall states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were considered key to her defeat. These states all had swings from voters who had previously voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012 yet went for Trump in 2016. These states have largely relied on manufacturing and part of Trump’s campaign appeal was that he would end international trade agreements that hurt American manufacturing. He was outspoken on trade issues. Had Clinton been elected, she would have been the first female and first spouse of a president to serve as president of the United States, whereas her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, would also have been the first acting first lady since Margaret Woodrow Wilson. Kaine would become the third vice president from Virginia, after Thomas Jefferson and John Tyler.
Background information
Post-2008 primary election campaign
As soon as Clinton ended her 2008 Democratic presidential primary election campaign and conceded to Barack Obama, there was talk of her running again in 2012 or 2016. After she ended her tenure as Secretary of State in 2013, speculation picked up sharply, particularly when she listed her occupation on social media as "TBD". In the meantime, Clinton earned over $11 million giving 51 paid speeches to various organizations, including Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks. The speeches, and Clinton's not releasing their transcripts, would be raised as an issue by her opponents during the upcoming primary and general election campaigns. In October 2016, leaked excerpts from a Goldman Sachs Q&A session cast doubts about her support for the 2010 Dodd–Frank financial oversight legislation.Anticipating a future run, a "campaign-in-waiting" began to take shape in 2014, including a large donor network, experienced operatives, the Ready for Hillary and Priorities USA Action campaign political action committees, and other campaign infrastructure.
By September 2013, amid continual political and media speculation, Clinton said she was considering a run but was in no hurry to decide. In late 2013, Clinton told ABC's Barbara Walters that she would "look carefully at what I think I can do and make that decision sometime next year"; and told ABC's Diane Sawyer in June 2014 that she would "be on the way to making a decision before the end of the year."
Decision-making process
While many political analysts came to assume during this time that Clinton would run, she took a long time to make the decision. While Clinton said she spent much of the two years following her tenure, as Secretary of State, thinking about the possibility of running for president again, she was also noncommittal about the prospect, and appeared to some as reluctant to experience again the unpleasant aspects of a major political campaign. Those around her were split in their opinions, reportedly, with Bill Clinton said to be the most in favor of her running again, Chelsea Clinton leaning towards it, but several of her closest aides against it. She reportedly studied Obama's 2008 campaign to see what had gone right for Obama as compared to her own campaign. Not until December 2014, around the time of the Clintons' annual winter vacation in the Dominican Republic, did she say she decided for sure that she would indeed run again.Expectations
According to nationwide opinion polls in early 2015, Clinton was considered the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. She had gained a broader sweep of early endorsements from the Democratic Party establishment in the 2016 race than she did in 2008, although she did face several primary election challengers, and, in August 2015 Vice President Joe Biden was reported to be seriously considering a possible challenge to Clinton.Clinton had a very high name recognition of an estimated 99% and according to Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, she has had strong support from African-Americans, and among college-educated women and single women.
In Time magazine's 2015 list of "The 100 Most Influential People", Clinton praised Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who herself was considered as a potential challenger to Clinton, for being a "progressive champion". Warren decided not to run for president, despite pressure from some progressives.
Announcement
The Clinton campaign had planned for a delayed announcement, possibly as late as July 2015.On April 3, 2015, it was reported that Clinton had taken a lease on a small office at 1 Pierrepont Plaza in Brooklyn, New York City. It was widely speculated that the space would serve as her campaign headquarters.
On April 12, 2015, Clinton released a YouTube video formally announcing her candidacy via email. She stated that, "Everyday Americans need a champion. And I want to be that champion." The week following her announcement, she traveled to early primary states, such as Iowa and New Hampshire. Clinton was the third candidate with support in national polls to announce her candidacy, following Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, while Florida Senator Marco Rubio announced his candidacy on April 13, the day after Clinton. Some Democrats saw the proximity of Clinton's campaign announcement to Rubio's as advantageous, as Clinton's announcement might overshadow Rubio's.
Clinton's campaign logo was unveiled on April 12, 2015, featuring a blue H with a red arrow through the middle.
Van tour
Clinton began her campaign by making short trips to early primary and caucus states. Immediately following her announcement, she made a two-day road trip in a customized Chevrolet Express van, nicknamed after Scooby-Doo, going from New York to Iowa, and stopping several times along the way, including a much publicized stop at a Chipotle Mexican Grill outside Toledo, Ohio, where Clinton was not recognized by the staff. The trip gained considerable media attention and was, according to her campaign, intended as a bit of political theater.Clinton responded to very few questions from the press during the first month of her campaign. During her visits to early primary and caucus states, she did not hold any formal press conferences, and did not participate in any media interviews. On May 19, 2015, after 28 days, Clinton answered some questions from reporters at an event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Clinton's campaign announced she would make additional stops in Florida, Texas, and Missouri in May and June.
Kickoff rally
Clinton held her first major campaign rally on June 13, 2015, at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on the southern tip of New York City's Roosevelt Island.In her speech, Clinton addressed income inequality in the United States, specifically endorsed universal pre-kindergarten, paid family leave, equal pay for women, college affordability, and incentives for companies that provide profit sharing to employees. She did not address free trade agreements during the kickoff speech, but made statements the next day suggesting that the current negotiations should be abandoned unless improved.
The campaign said more than 5,500 people were in attendance, but estimates of crowd size by the press in attendance were less.
According to John Cassidy, staff writer at The New Yorker, Clinton, up to a point, took a populist tone:
On June 15, 2015, South Carolina Senator Clementa C. Pinckney, who had campaigned for Clinton earlier that day, was murdered along with eight others in the Charleston Church shooting. Clinton postponed campaign activities to join President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and other dignitaries at Pinckney's funeral in Charleston on June 26, 2015.
Advertising
In August 2015, the Clinton campaign began a $2 million television advertising buy in Iowa and New Hampshire. The ads featured footage of Clinton's late mother, Dorothy Rodham, and of Clinton herself, and featured women, family, and children.In a review of Clinton's 32 general election TV ads, the Associated Press found that 24 of those ads show or mention Trump. The majority of those 24 ads feature raw footage of him rather than others opining on his words and actions.
Platform
Clinton focused her candidacy on several themes, including raising middle class incomes, expanding women's rights, instituting campaign finance reform, and improving the Affordable Care Act.In March 2016, she laid out a detailed economic plan, which The New York Times called "optimistic" and "wide-ranging". Basing her economic philosophy on inclusive capitalism, Clinton proposed a "clawback" which would rescind tax relief and other benefits for companies that move jobs overseas; providing incentives for companies that share profits with employees, communities and the environment, rather than focusing on short-term profits to increase stock value and rewarding shareholders; increasing collective bargaining rights; and placing an "exit tax" on companies that move their headquarters out of America in order to pay a lower tax rate overseas. Clinton opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, supported the U.S. Export-Import Bank, and stated that "any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security".
Given the climate of unlimited campaign contributions following the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, Clinton called for a constitutional amendment to limit "unaccountable money" in politics. In July 2016, she "committed" to introducing a U.S. constitutional amendment that would result in overturning the 2010 Citizens United decision.
On social issues, Clinton explicitly focused on family issues, particularly universal preschool. Clinton also prioritized closing the gender pay gap and reaffirmed that she believed that a right to same-sex marriage is protected by the U.S. constitution. Clinton stated that allowing undocumented immigrants to have a path to citizenship "s at its heart a family issue."
Clinton expressed support for the Common Core educational initiative, saying, "The really unfortunate argument that's been going on around Common Core, it's very painful because the Common Core started off as a bipartisan effort. It was actually nonpartisan. It wasn't politicized.... Iowa has had a testing system based on a core curriculum for a really long time. And you see the value of it, you understand why that helps you organize your whole education system. And a lot of states unfortunately haven't had that, and so don't understand the value of a core, in this sense a Common Core."
In a December 7, 2015 The New York Times article, Clinton presented her detailed plans for regulating Wall Street financial activities by reining in the largest institutions to limit risky behavior, appointing strong regulators, and holding executives accountable.
Clinton supported maintaining American influence in the Middle East. She publicly opposed Trump's call to ban Muslims from the United States as "shameful" and "dangerous". She also claimed Trump's statement was "a reflection of much of the rest of his party", as "many GOP candidates have also said extreme things about Muslims". Clinton told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, "America can't ever be neutral when it comes to Israel's security and survival."