As 2016 presidential candidates flocked to spend Independence Day in early voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton found herself defending her record on policy and the size of crowds at her events.
“I take a backseat to no one when you look at my record in standing up and fighting for progressive values,” Clinton told an audience in Hanover, New Hampshire, on Friday.
Clinton has come under greater-than-expected pressure from the independent Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic socialist running a determinedly grassroots-focused campaign who nonetheless attracted nearly 10,000 people to a rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday. On Friday night, a Sanders event in Council Buffs, Iowa, was standing-room only.
Later on Friday, while visiting the Dairy Twirl ice cream shop in Lebanon, Clinton was asked why she was not drawing such big crowds.
“Well, we each run our own campaigns and I always knew this was gonna be competitive,” she said. “And I want to have a great debate in the primary and caucuses around the country and that’s what I’m looking forward to.
“I love coming to New Hampshire, and I love going to every part of the state, and I’m happy to be here in the upper valley,” she added about her time in the state whose motto is “Live free or die”.
Clinton also said getting defeated by Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary taught her the importance of organizing every single day.
“That’s why I’m doing a lot of meetings and discussions about specific issues,” she said, “because I want to hear from people and I also want to connect them to the campaign.
“And I feel like it’s really working. It is building a campaign here in New Hampshire, using the grassroots, and coming up from that, because at the end of the day, I think that wins elections and wins caucuses.”
On the morning of 4 July, the former senator and secretary of state attended a grassroots organizing event in Glen.
In the afternoon, Clinton was set to march in the Gorham Fourth of July parade. Former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee, another candidate for the Democratic nomination, was also campaigning in the state, planning to visit Merrimack and Amherst.
Sanders and the former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley were both in Iowa for the day. Sanders was due to march in parades in Creston and Waukee.
Sanders has been gaining on Clinton. On Thursday, a Quinnipiac University poll found Clinton at 52% in Iowa while Sanders had climbed to 33%. On 7 May, Clinton led the same poll by 60% to 15%. The latest CNN poll shows Clinton only eight points ahead of Sanders in New Hampshire, although national surveys remain more clearly in Clinton’s favor.
Republican presidential candidates also opted to celebrate Independence Day in the early voting states.
After a sleepover at 2012 candidate Mitt Romney’s vacation home in New Hampshire, New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Florida senator Marco Rubio were to march in Wolfeboro’s parade.
The former Texas governor Rick Perry, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham were due to join Chafee in Amherst.
