CLINTON BANKS ON HISPANICS
Early minority votes may favour Democrats as battle heats up in Sunshine State
Just a day before Americans head to the polls, Donald Trump says he will continue to push for support in Democratic bastions that are now hotly contested between him and Hillary Clinton.
Speaking in Tampa, Florida — a vital battleground state — Trump said that “we’re going into what they used to call Democratic strongholds”. His other stops on Saturday included North Carolina, Nevada and Colorado.
Both candidates are investing heavily in time and resources to win in Florida which, with 29 electoral votes, is considered a “must-win” state for Trump. Without it, analysts say, Trump is very unlikely to be
FLORIDA is the mother of all swing states, with 29 electoral votes. It can make or break a candidate. In 2000 a few hundred votes separated George W. Bush and his rival Al Gore able to capture the 270 electoral votes necessary to win, unless major upsets occur elsewhere.
Clinton, for her part, concentrated on South Florida, where she met supporters in Broward County and visited a campaign office in the Little Haiti section of Miami. As elsewhere, Clinton continued her attempts to appeal to minority groups, young people and women.
“I want to be president for everybody,” Clinton said. “So let’s get out, let’s vote for the future, let’s vote for what we want.”
Since the nomination conventions in July, the candidates and their running mates have held more than 86 events in Florida — 39 by Trump and Mike Pence, and 48 by Clinton and Tim Kaine. Almost six million Floridians have already cast their ballots, and the latest poll from RealClearPolitics shows Clinton with a 1.5 per cent lead.
After running even with Trump last week, Clinton now holds a five-point lead in the latest Washinton Post-ABC Tracking Poll. In the poll released on Friday, Clinton led Trump by 47 per cent to 44 per cent.
Clinton’s efforts to woo minority voters appear to be paying dividends, with a surge in the number of Hispanic voters that cast their vote early. At least 200,000 Hispanics had already voted by Friday.
“We are seeing tremendous momentum, large numbers of people turning out, breaking records,” the New York Times quoted Clinton as saying.
Many Republicans worry that Trump’s widely condemned comments about Hispanics — which included characterising Mexicans as rapists and criminals — have cost the Republicans a key demographic.
“The story of this election may be the mobilisation of the Hispanic vote,” anti-Trump Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told the New York Times. “So Trump deserves the award for Hispanic turnout (for the Democrats). He did more to get them out than any Democrat has ever done.”
Despite the Clinton campaign’s success with minority voters, on Saturday polls continued to tighten in a number of predominantly white states such as Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
With the race as tight as ever, Trump keeps playing to his audience by sticking to familiar themes: immigration, national security, and questions regarding the integrity of Clinton as a candidate.
“If she ever got into the Oval Office, Hillary and her special interests would rob this country blind,” he told a crowd in North Carolina.
On Monday, Trump is scheduled to press on with his campaign in contested states, with events scheduled in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan. Clinton, for her part, is scheduled to appear in North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Hampshire.
The Clinton campaign continues to flounder in a number of heavily White and vastly important states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.
bernd@khaleejtimes.com