Ex-presidents hit the campaign trail for last-ditch pitches to voters, and Hillary Clinton is counting on them to help her in Florida. | REUTERS The Clinton campaign has a’sustained and intense focus’ on Florida
Hillary Clinton campaigned in Florida for the second time in as many days on Tuesday, seeking to solidify support from black and Hispanic voters before the pivotal early-voting state kicks off early voting.
Clinton is using every tactic at her disposal to rally support from African-American voters, the most-likely bloc of voters in the Sunshine State, where she is seeking to secure the White House, and Latinos, the largest minority group in the country.
“I’m on the campaign trail right now because I have great work to do for the American people,” Clinton said in a packed auditorium in Jacksonville. “And I want to have the work done. And I want to have the work done on the first day, and I want to do that on the second day, and I want to do that on the third day.”
Her visit comes as Donald Trump continues to lead in Florida, polling ahead of both the GOP candidate and Democrat Hillary Clinton in the most recent RealClearPolitics polling average, which averages national polls.
With the first day of early voting in Florida just around the corner, Clinton’s decision to return to the battleground state is consistent with Democratic hopes of bringing black and Hispanic voters into the fold. She has been able to secure victories in black and Latino communities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
A handful of the Florida black voters Clinton is targeting could be persuadable on Saturday, when more than one million early and absentee voters cast ballots, compared to around 50,000 for the 2012 presidential election. In Florida, Clinton has been working to create a bridge for African-American voters that is more than two generations old. In 1960, voters in the state elected the city’s first black mayor, Tom Bradley, and the first
