Hillary Clinton’s campaign to secure the Democratic nomination received a huge boost on Friday. The Washington Post reports that two large organisations sympathetic to Mrs Clinton’s campaign have pledged to deliver support, drawing funding from wealthy benefactors and other corporate sources.
It’s a turn of events that’s likely to fuel rival Bernie Sanders’ attacks on Clinton as ‘too close’ to Wall Street. Elections, though, are often decided by ads, coverage and PR, and the funding can only help Clinton materially in what is a closely-fought contest with the Vermont senator.
The so-called “Super PAC” (political action committee) released some $5 million dollars to fund Clinton’s efforts, hoping to turn out Latino, African American and women voters early for the upcoming primary votes.
The race for the nomination has been far from plain-sailing for the former Secretary of State and wife of former President Bill Clinton. The New Hampshire primary, seen as a critical indicator of the race, was taken decisively by Sanders with a significant 60% to 38% margin.
In a victory for what some see as the “fringe” candidates, Donald Trump also recorded a famous victory, taking over 35.3%, more than double that of his nearest rival, John Kasich.
South Carolina, the next top state to turn out for primaries, has been seen as something of a Clinton firewall by her supporters. MSNBC, however, reported that Clinton had just 14 full-time campaign staffers in the state as opposed to Sanders’ 240 – 80 of them African American.
In the wake of the massive loss in New Hampshire, Clinton campaign spokespeople have been keen to emphasise Hillary’s strong ties to African American voters. She recently spoke in black-majority Bamberg County, SC, addressing issues such as lack of funding for infrastructure and schools in the area.
Clinton also used the opportunity to launch a veiled attack on her Democratic rival, telling the crowd “I’m not a single-issue candidate, and this is not a single-issue country.”
