- Hillary
Clinton «
Announcement
Press Release from Hillary for America
rec'd at 3:29 p.m.
Hillary Clinton to
Run For President in 2016
Urges Americans to Join the Campaign: “It’s Your Time”
Hillary Clinton pledged to be a champion for everyday Americans and their families when she announced her plan to run a grassroots campaign for President of the United States today. Hillary believes this campaign is about voters, not her, and urged people to get involved in her campaign saying, “It’s your time.”
The announcement came first in a tweet with an accompanying video and then in an email to her supporters. The video features middle class families talking about their lives and planning for what’s ahead. You can watch the video HERE.
In the video, Hillary explained why she is running, saying, “Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top.” She argued for an economy where “you can do more than just get by, you can get ahead and stay ahead, because when families are strong, America is strong.”
Hillary is committed to earning every vote and is starting with a focus on the early Democratic primary states. She will start with stops in Iowa this week to talk with Iowa voters, ramping up to a campaign kickoff in mid-May.
Hillary Clinton has served as U.S. Secretary of State, Senator from New York, First Lady of the United States and First Lady of Arkansas, but the first thing her friends and family will tell you is that she’s never forgotten where she came from or who she’s been fighting for. From her mother’s own childhood – in which she was abandoned by her parents – to her work going door-to-door for the Children’s Defense Fund to her battling to create the Children’s Health Insurance Program, she’s fought children and families all her career.
You can read her full bio online at www.hillaryclinton.com/bio.
THE RAMP UP
Just like the families in her video who are getting ready for fresh starts, Hillary is preparing her campaign organization. She’s committed to spending the next 6 to 8 weeks in a “ramp up” period where her team will start to build a nation-wide grassroots organization, and she will spend her time engaging directly with voters.
In her announcement video, Hillary urged people to get involved in the cause saying, “It’s your time. I hope you’ll join me on this journey.”
In May, once her supporters in all 50 states are organized for house parties or to watch over live-streams, Hillary will hold her first rally and deliver the speech to kick off her campaign.
#####
For Immediate Release, April 12, 2015
Reviews Are In: Hillary’s Announcement Shows This Will Be A
Campaign About People
Rick Klein,
ABC News @rickklein
Hillary
video the rare political video that purports to be about people
and
actually features people looking and talking like people.
Philip
Rucker, Washington Post @PhilipRucker
Launch video
places Hillary in the heart of modern America: working women,
young people, gay couples, factory workers, etc.
Laura Meckler, Wall Street Journal @laurameckler
Friend not in politics watched Clinton video & said "that's me" when scene of mom going back to work flashed. on.wsj.com/1I5k2xn
Ben Smith, BuzzFeed @BuzzFeedBen
So maybe, against all insider expectations, she's going to run a pretty good campaign.
David Plouffe, 2008 Obama Campaign
Manager @DavidPlouffe
Off to a very strong start. And not talking about Justin Rose.
O. Kay Henderson, Radio Iowa @okayhenderson
#IApolitics TomatoGrower in @HillaryClinton video - Julie Stauch, WDM “I’m a longtime HillarySupporter…She’s 10X better” than ‘08
Tyler Dumond, NH1 @NH1_Tyler
Within 1 hour
of #Hillary2016 announcement, @HillaryClinton supporters are out in
Portsmouth @NH1News #NH #nhpolitics pic.twitter.com/Zo
John Cassidy,
New Yorker @JohnCassidy
The
@HillaryClinton campaign launch video is self-effacing, fun,
and uplifting. Good start. https://youtu.be/0uY7gL
David Drucker, Washington Examiner @DavidMDrucker
.@HillaryClinton in video: "I'm hitting the road to earn your
vote." … Video was well-crafted. HRC comes off well.…
John Harwood,
CNBC/New York Times @JohnJHarwood
Hillary's
announcement video is extremely well-done: https://www.faceboo
John DiStaso, WMUR, @jdistaso
.@SenatorShaheen email #fitn backers: '...up to us to jump-start @HillaryClinton race..giving her an unshakable advantage #nhpolitics #wmur
Paul Begala, Democratic Political Consultant @PaulBegala
.@HillaryClinton is talking about people. Repubs are talking about Hillary. Wonder whose priorities voters will prefer?
Iowa Starting Line @IAStartingLine
Hillary video hits all the right points. Whether or not press likes it, I think it's the perfect message for voters
Alex Seitz-Wald, MSNBC @aseitzwald
Hillary Clinton's announcement tweet was viewed over 3 million times in one hour, per @twitter.
Jennifer Epstein, Bloomberg @jeneps
Friend not in politics says she "literally cried" during Clinton video. After she checked to make sure it wasn't an ad for something else.
"...rather than follow it with a splashy rally, she instead plans to head to the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, looking to connect with voters directly at coffee shops, day care centers and some private homes. [...] This voter-centric approach was picked with a purpose, to show that Clinton is not taking the nomination for granted. Only after about a month of such events will Clinton will give a broader speech outlining more specifics about her rationale for running."
"It is upbeat, with humor, music and images of everyday Americans talking about challenges and opportunities in their lives. This time, she says, with considerably more humility: 'I’m hitting the road to earn your vote.'"
New York Times' Patrick Healy:
"It’s definitely a hopeful, optimistic video — talking about spring, new jobs, new homes, a gay couple getting married. Very forward-looking — and no references to her own past, and certainly not to the Clinton era of the 1990s. [...] She is portraying herself as a fighter — not against a Democratic rival or a Republican opponent. [...] But against greater forces that a lot of Americans feel are keeping them down."
New York Times' Maggie Haberman:
“This video is very much about the Democratic coalition of today — as you say, a gay couple getting married as a campaign centerpiece would have been unimaginable even in the President Obama re-elect in 2012."
John King, CNN:
"It’s very cleverly constructed. It’s a very smart political argument about what this is about. 'I want families to be able to get ahead. I want to help you fight. You’ve come back a little bit, but there’s more to go. The government is not on your side. The deck is stacked against you.' So it’s Hillary Clinton saying essentially, 'I will fight for you.' It’s populist."
Perry Bacon, MSNBC:
"I was really struck by the fact that -- I watch the video, and for the first minute and a half, you didn’t see Hillary Clinton’s face at all. And it really went to the point, that this is a, the idea being, that this is a campaign about voters, not about me."
Julie Roginsky, Fox News:
"It’s her saying, 'Look this isn’t about me, I’m not being entitled, it’s about you and I’m here to earn your vote.' That’s a much more humble Hillary Clinton than we’ve seen in the past, and I hope it continues."
Jeff Zeleny, CNN:
“This video is exactly what her advisers said she wanted to announce like this. She knew that she could not announce the exact same way she did in 2008 by giving sort of a speech on a sofa as she did in 2008. She’s going to listen to voters. She’s going to start that on Tuesday in Iowa in a very small setting"
Vox:
"Hillary Clinton's opening message: It's not about me, it's about you.
...
Instead, the video suits a new kind of campaign - and certainly a new kind of campaign for Clinton - that emphasizes the needs and aspirations of voters."
"Instead, the video captured messages central to her campaign by featuring regular Americans starting new phases of life: a mother going back to work after years spent raising her kids; a young woman applying for her first job after college; two Spanish-speaking brothers starting their own business together; two men getting married."
Daniel Halper, Weekly Standard, on Fox News:
"We
also saw a lot of kids and a lot of seniors and I think that’s the
demographic, that’s the coalition that Hillary Clinton is going to try
to build. That is the big signal as to who she is going to try to
appeal to - to cobble together enough voters to become the president of
the United States. I think it actually is revealing in its own right
and she wants to be, you know she doesn’t want to be at the forefront.
It’s about the voters, it’s about the American people. She’ll come last
and help bring people. I think that’s what that advertisement is trying
to tell us."
Copyright © 2015 Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.
All rights reserved.