Hillary Clinton’s gaze was fixed upon her cellphone as she emerged from her motorcade at the Westchester County airport.
“Do you see the big plane?” she asked, turning the camera towards the 737 she was about to board for the final day of her campaign.
She was speaking with her granddaughter, Charlotte, through FaceTime. “I love you,” the Democratic candidate said as she signed off.
It was a peaceful start to an otherwise frenetic day. Clinton was set to blitz four cities in three battleground states to deliver her closing argument to voters, with a final rally at midnight in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The following day, Tuesday 8 November, will determine whether Clinton breaks “that highest, hardest glass ceiling”, becoming the first female president in America’s 240-year history.
Clinton arrived at the airport 40 miles north of New York City just as 55 members of the press had gathered at the wing of the plane for a group photo – a bipartisan tradition among candidates at the close of a long, grueling campaign. Some had trailed the former secretary of state nearly every day for two years.
“The key is to do as you’re told,” Clinton quipped, as the pack of journalists struggled to follow the instructions of a campaign photographer.
The Democratic nominee appeared relaxed on a day of many “lasts”: her last visits to a trio of states – Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina – as a presidential candidate; her last voyage in the campaign plane that since 5 September has crisscrossed the country; and her last opportunity to deliver a closing argument to the American people.
Sensing their chance to quiz the candidate, also perhaps one last time, the press corps swiftly surrounded her the moment the photos were snapped.
Did Clinton feel the American public was finally ready to accept her, one reporter asked.
“I think I have some work to do to bring the country together,” Clinton responded, referring to the aftermath of a bitterly fought campaign, but leaving unaddressed the role her gender has played in the American public’s perception of her over the last 25 years.
“I really do want to be the president for everybody,” she added, “people who vote for me, people who vote against me.
“These splits, these divides that have been not only exposed but exacerbated by the campaign on the other side, are ones that we really do have to [resolve to] bring this country together.”
Clinton’s comments echoed the message she has taken to the stump in the final stretch as voters go to the polls. Surveying the crowds of thousands who have packed into gymnasiums, outdoor parks and concert halls, often queuing up hours in advance, Clinton has sought to ease the concerns of a disenchanted electorate.
“We will have some work to do to bring about healing and reconciliation after this election,” she told voters in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Sunday evening.
The forward-looking sentiment is in some ways a testament to a confidence on Clinton’s part that, despite the narrowing of the polls, victory is in sight. But cautious optimism is a better reflection of the mood projected by both the candidate and her campaign.
Turnout still holds the key to Clinton’s path to victory. Early voting returns favor the former secretary of state, with Democrats outpacing Republicans in the swing states whose electoral votes Clinton must secure to reach the 270 that will propel her to the presidency.
And so she has lately dispensed with her usual stump speech, choosing instead to lean heavily on the logistics of how the thousands of voters standing before her can translate their enthusiasm into action. There is a number they can text or a website they can visit, Clinton says, that will provide them with the information they need to register to vote or find the nearest polling location.
“We’re just going to work until the last vote is counted,” Clinton told reporters prior to departure on Monday.
Her campaign has been bolstered by its ground game – the product of her team’s early and consistent investment in a vast infrastructure that in Florida alone spans 81 field offices. This weekend, volunteers in the battleground states made nearly 14.5m voter-to-voter contacts, the campaign said, comprising 6.2m door-knocks and 8.1m phone calls.
A memo distributed by Clinton’s campaign on Monday emphasized a strong turnout among Latinos and African Americans, both core constituencies of the Democratic party. In Florida, more than one million Hispanics voted early, roughly double the number who did so in 2012, the report said. And in North Carolina, where Democrats were apprehensive about enthusiasm among black voters, a spike in recent days meant nearly the same number of African Americans had cast their ballots early as did so four years ago.
What remains unknown, however, is the impact of FBI director James Comey’s decision to reopen the issue of her private email server a week and a half ago – and then just as suddenly attempt to resolve the matter on Sunday with a statement once again clearing her of criminal wrongdoing.
Spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said the campaign was “glad that the matter is resolved”, but Clinton herself has not mentioned the latest developments. Her campaign manager lamented over the weekend that the renewed controversy had distracted from Clinton’s message, but downplayed its impact on the polls.
A palpable anxiety was nonetheless evident on the faces of many who had braved the crisp fall weather to get a glimpse of Clinton as she concluded her journey. Clutching campaign signs bearing one of Clinton’s slogans, “Love trumps hate”, they jeered at the mention of her opponent’s name. The Democratic candidate has rewarded them with a bevy of celebrity performers, from Beyoncé and Jay Z to Katy Perry and James Taylor; Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi will perform at her rally in Philadelphia on Monday night.
In Manchester on Sunday, Clinton took the stage with a figure who has become well-known for a very different reason. Khizr Khan became an overnight celebrity when he delivered a stirring speech at the Democratic national convention in July, holding up a copy of his pocket constitution and memorably telling Donald Trump: “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.” Trump went on to attack him and his wife in racially inflected terms.
Introducing Clinton on Sunday, Khan shared an anecdote befitting the night’s theme of healing.
Khan was recently approached by a woman, he said, whose 10-year-old son was bullied in school and told he would be “thrown out of here”. She showed him Khan’s convention speech, which the boy proceeded to watch every day after facing yet more taunts from his classmates. With permission from the school’s principal, the teacher decided to play Khan’s speech for the entire class.
“A few days later, the mother asked him, ‘Have you been bullied?’ And he said, ‘No. Not after that speech,’” Khan recounted.
Taking the podium, Clinton thanked Khan for telling the story. “That really struck a chord with me,” she said. “These are words that I would hope that all Americans, and particularly young Americans, would hear and heed.”
