The leading U.S. Democratic Party presidential contender, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is campaigning in Iowa, looking to enlist political volunteers in a state that snubbed her when she first ran for the presidency in 2008.
Clinton, fresh off Saturday’s a campaign speech in New York, is calling for an extensive list of progressive advances in the United States.
Early next year, Iowa Democrats and Republicans will cast the first votes of the 2016 presidential race at party caucuses in the long, state-by-state list of contests to select nominees to face each other in the national presidential election. The eventual winner will succeed President Barack Obama in January 2017. He is limited by the country’s constitution to two terms in office.
Clinton fared poorly in the 2008 Iowa caucuses, with Mr. Obama’s victory in the rural, farm belt state giving him an early springboard to the Democratic nomination. Other candidates have joined the contest against Clinton this year, but national public opinion surveys show her the overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic nomination and ahead in possible matchups against a wide array of Republicans seeking their party’s nomination.
Jeb Bush nears official start
One of the leading Republican contenders, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, the son and brother of two U.S. presidents, is set to officially announce his candidacy Monday in Miami, the 11th Republican in the race with several others likely to join the contest as well.
Bush has raised vast sums of cash for his campaign and was initially thought to be the leading Republican contender. But recent national political surveys show him virtually deadlocked with two other candidates, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who has joined the contest, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who has yet to officially announce.
Clinton vows to fight for the middle class
At her New York rally, Clinton promised to promote equal opportunity and to fight for a hard-pressed middle class. She told thousands of supporters she is running for president for all Americans, including those left behind after the recession.
“America can’t succeed unless you succeed; that is why I am running for president of the United States,” she said to chants of “Hillary, Hillary.”
She castigated the Republican presidential contenders as out of touch with the needs of American voters and their evolving views on several issues.
“They pledge to wipe out tough rules on Wall Street rather than rein in the banks that are still too risky, courting future failures, in a case that can only be considered mass amnesia,” Clinton said. “They want to take away health insurance from more than 16 million Americans without any credible alternative. They shame and blame women, rather than respect our right to make our own reproductive health decisions. They want to put immigrants who work hard and pay taxes at risk of deportation, and they turn their backs on gay people who love each other.”
Clinton referenced Republican criticism of her by saying, “I have been called many things by many people, but ‘quitter’ is not one of them.”
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