Clinton touts early voting as strategy for victory
DES MOINES, Iowa — With early voting poised to play a bigger role in this year’s election, Hillary Clinton was urging voters in Iowa to start casting ballots on Thursday, more than five weeks before election day.
Clinton’s 10-city tour of Iowa brought the Democratic presidential nominee back to a state where she eked out a win in the caucuses over Bernie Sanders. With her focus now on defeating Donald Trump, Clinton was hoping that an emphasis on early voting could help her replicate President Obama’s successful strategy in the battleground state four years ago. For Clinton, the early-voting strategy is key to any prospects she may have for pulling off victories in states like Arizona and Georgia, which traditionally vote Republican in presidential races.
Other states have already begun in-person early voting, but Iowa is getting attention because it’s the first battleground state to do so.
In Des Moines on Thursday, Clinton sought to offer a hopeful message about the future that would contrast with the doom-and-gloom themes that Trump has made staples of his campaign. Laying out ideas for addressing child care challenges faced by middleclass families, Clinton recounted for supporters at a rally her own background of working on children’s issues and her father’s struggles as a small businessman.
“I know so much of this campaign has been about, you know, whatever my opponent said and who he attacked and who he denigrates — and the list is long,” Clinton said. “But it’s not about that, it’s about you. It’s about your families and your future, and each of us should be telling you what we intend to do in the job.”
Clinton’s campaign seized on a new report alleging Trump had explored business opportunities in Cuba in the late 1990s, apparently in violation of the U.S. embargo on the communist island. Though Clinton strongly supports President Obama’s efforts to ease the embargo and restore U.S. ties to Cuba, she accused her opponent of acting against U.S. interests by defying the sanctions.
The work was done by a consulting firm called Seven Arrows on behalf Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc., Newsweek reported.