Obama hits campaign trail
President making stops to boost support for Democrats
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama was looking to boost Hillary Clinton’s prospects and help Democrats in their bid to retake Senate control, scheduling a campaign stop Sunday in tightly contested Nevada before headlining party fundraisers in California.
Obama’s recent itinerary has focused on competitive White House states that also have close Senate races. In Nevada, the president is trying to help Democrats retain the seat of the Senate’s top Democrat, Harry Reid, who is serving out his fifth term before retiring.
At a rally at a Las Vegasarea high school for Clinton and Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto.
Obama told Nevadans that they’ve got the winning hand when it comes to this year’s election.
“You’ve got black jack,” Obama says of the Democratic candidates.
Masto, a former state attorney general, and Republican Rep. Joe Heck are vying to replace Reid.
Polls indicate that the presidential and Senate races in Nevada are extremely tight. Reid’s seat is considered the only one Republicans could reasonably flip to their side this election. Outside groups have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to influence the outcome.
Obama is encouraging Nevadans to vote, saying “We can’t afford the other guy.”
Late Sunday, Obama planned to speak at an event in San Diego to benefit the organization that leads party efforts to election Democrats to the House. His schedule included fundraisers in Los Angeles today and Tuesday.
Heck, the Republican candidate now in his third House term, is trying to distance himself from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Two weeks ago, Heck said: “I cannot, in good conscience, continue to support him nor can I vote for Hillary Clinton.”
But Democrats are calling it too little, too late. Cortez Masto said in the recent Senate debate, “Donald Trump’s ship is sinking, and Congressman Heck is scurrying off it.”
Heck was one of the first GOP candidates to withdraw his backing from Trump after a recently released video showed Trump making sexually inappropriate comments about women back in 2005. Heck’s decision could help him appeal to moderate voters, but he risks alienating some of Trump’s ardent supporters.
Obama is working to tie Republican candidates to Trump every chance he gets. “I mean, I know that some of them now are walking away. But why did it take you this long?” Obama said during a speech in Miami this past week when he criticized Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Democrats need to pick up five seats to gain the majority in the Senate, or four if they hang onto control of the White House. The vice president casts tie-breaking votes in the Senate.
Meanwhile, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine shrugged off any possibility that he could be embarrassed by the release of hacked emails. WikiLeaks, which has been posting stolen emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, has twice taunted that Kaine is in for a “surprise.”