Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign
Hillary Clinton is an American politician from the state of New York who was the Democratic Party's 2016 nominee for president of the United States. Clinton is the first woman in U.S. history to be nominated for president of the United States by a major political party. She was defeated in the 2016 general election by Republican Donald Trump.
For her 2008 campaign, see Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign and Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential primary campaign.Hillary for America
- Hillary Clinton
- 67th U.S. Secretary of State
- (2009–2013)
- Tim Kaine
- U.S. Senator from Virginia
- (2013–present)
- Announced: April 12, 2015
- Official launch: June 13, 2015
- Presumptive nominee: June 6, 2016
- Official nominee: July 26, 2016
- Lost election: November 8, 2016
- John Podesta (chair)
- Huma Abedin (vice chair)
- Robby Mook (manager)
- Joel Benenson (chief strategist)
- Jim Margolis (media strategist)
- Jennifer Palmieri (communications director)
- Brian Fallon (press secretary)
- Stephanie Hannon (technology)
- Amanda Renteria (national political director)
- Marc Elias (general counsel)
- Nick Merrill (spokesperson)[2]
- Dennis Cheng (national finance director)[3]
US$585,699,061.27[4] (December 31, 2016)
- "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten
- "Roar" by Katy Perry
- "Brave" by Sara Bareilles
- "Stronger Together" by Jessica Sanchez
- "Rise Up" by Andra Day
The 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton was announced in a YouTube video on April 12, 2015.[5] Clinton was the 67th United States Secretary of State and served during the first term of the Obama administration, from 2009 to 2013. She was previously a United States Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, and is the wife of former President Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton served as First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
Clinton's main competitor in the 2016 Democratic primary election was Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. She 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, LGBT, and women's rights, raising wages and ensuring equal pay for women, and improving healthcare. The Associated Press declared Clinton the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party after she reached the required number of delegates (including both pledged delegates and superdelegates) on June 6, 2016.[6] Clinton announced that U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia would be her vice presidential running mate on July 22.[7] Clinton and Kaine were nominated at the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 26.[8]
Clinton lost the general election to Republican Donald Trump on November 9, 2016.[9][10] Clinton's narrow losses in the blue wall states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were considered key to her defeat.
Background information[edit]
Post-2008 primary election campaign[edit]
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.[11] 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.[12] The speeches, and Clinton's not releasing their transcripts, would be raised as an issue by her opponents during the upcoming primary[13] and general election campaigns.[14] 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.[15]
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 (PACs), and other campaign infrastructure.[16]
By September 2013, amid continual political and media speculation, Clinton said she was considering a run but was in no hurry to decide.[17] 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";[18] 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."[19]
Decision-making process[edit]
While many political analysts came to assume during this time that Clinton would run, she took a long time to make the decision.[20] 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.[21] 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.[20][21] She reportedly studied Obama's 2008 campaign to see what had gone right for Obama as compared to her own campaign.[21] 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.[20][21]
Expectations[edit]
According to nationwide opinion polls in early 2015, Clinton was considered the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.[17][22][23] She had gained a broader sweep of early endorsements from the Democratic Party establishment in the 2016 race than she did in 2008,[24][25] although she did face several primary election challengers,[26][27] and, in August 2015 Vice President Joe Biden was reported to be seriously considering a possible challenge to Clinton.[28]
Clinton had a very high name recognition of an estimated 99% (only 11% of all voters said they did not know enough about her to form an opinion) and according to Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, she has had strong support from African-Americans, and among college-educated women and single women.[29]
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".[30] Warren decided not to run for president, despite pressure from some progressives.[31]
Health[edit]
In July 2015, Clinton became the first 2016 presidential candidate to publicly release a medical history. The Clinton campaign released a letter from her physician, Lisa Bardack of Mount Kisco, New York, attesting to her good health based on a full medical evaluation.[164] The letter noted that there was a "complete resolution" of a brain concussion that Clinton suffered in 2012 and "total dissolution" of prior blood clots.[164] Bardack concluded that Clinton had no serious health issues that would interfere with her fitness to serve as president.[164] Despite this letter, rumors and conspiracy theories concerning Clinton's health proliferated online. In August 2016, Trump questioned Hillary's stamina and Fox News host Sean Hannity called for Clinton to release her medical records, fueling these theories.[165]
The US intelligence community noted that Clinton had health issues by August 27, 2016.[166]
In September 2016, Clinton developed pneumonia. She left a 9/11 commemoration ceremony early due to illness.[167][168][169] Video footage of Clinton's departure showed Clinton becoming unsteady on her feet and being helped into a van;[170] this footage went viral.[171] Later that evening, Clinton reassured reporters that she was "feeling great".[172] The Clinton campaign initially stated that Clinton had become overheated at the event; later on September 11, the campaign acknowledged that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia two days earlier.[170] Clinton spent three days recovering at home, canceling several campaign events, before returning to the campaign trail at a rally at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.[173]
Following the 9/11 event, the Clinton campaign was criticized by some media outlets for a lack of transparency concerning Clinton's health.[174][175] A subsequent poll found that 46% of respondents did not believe the campaign's disclosure that Clinton was suffering from pneumonia.[176] Responding to concerns about transparency, Clinton released supplementary health records from Dr. Bardack, who found that she had had a non-contagious bacterial pneumonia infection and that she had recovered well with antibiotics and rest. Bardack wrote that she was "fit to serve as president of the United States."[177]
Potential Supreme Court nominees[edit]
From the beginning of her presidential candidacy, Clinton stated that she would like to nominate justices who would overturn the decision in Citizens United v. FEC, a case allowing corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns.[264] Clinton also voiced support for judges who would vote favorably regarding abortion, unions, affirmative action, same-sex marriage, and President Obama's Clean Power Plan and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program.[265][266] Clinton also stated that she would look for a nominee who represents the diversity of the country and has professional experience outside of working for large law firms and serving as a judge.[267]
Potential nominees listed in August 2016 by the ABA Journal included Cory Booker, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Merrick Garland, Jane L. Kelly, Amy Klobuchar, Lucy H. Koh, Goodwin Liu, Patricia Millett, Jacqueline Nguyen, Sri Srinivasan and Paul J. Watford.[268] Barack Obama's name was also floated.[269]
Effectiveness[edit]
After a loss that was widely perceived as a surprise, critics alleged that the Clinton team ran an ineffective campaign. Several issues have been highlighted. A study by Wesleyan Media Project has shown that Clinton's TV ads "were almost entirely policy-free". The researchers wrote that "misallocated advertising funds" and "lack of policy messaging in advertising may have hurt Clinton enough to have made a difference".[291] In Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign, reporters Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes state that the campaign had "little vision or inspiration", an "ineffective" strategy that focused on "turnout, not persuasion" and reliance on a "faulty analytic model", amongst other issues.[292] Political scientist Stan Greenberg stated that Clinton focused on "[her] base and identity at the expense of class", that she did not call out "big-money special interests", and that her campaign focused too heavily on "data analytics".[293] Media outlets pointed to other perceived weaknesses in the campaign, including the lack of a coherent message,[294][295][296][297] an unwillingness to heed signs of trouble,[298][299] and the failure to remedy some voters' perception that Clinton was simply untrustworthy.[299][294] Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post named Clinton "the worst candidate of 2016".[300]
Despite this, political scientists John M. Sides, Michael Tesler and Lynn Vavreck dispute the criticism that Clinton ran an inept campaign, saying that this is a "myth" and there is little evidence to support the criticism.[301] A common critique of the Clinton campaign is that it did not campaign in Wisconsin (which Trump narrowly won); however, according to a study by political scientist Christopher J. Devine, it is "unclear" from the evidence "whether Clinton also would have gained votes, or even won, in Wisconsin had she campaigned in that state."[302]