Clinton leans on Democratic loyalists to gain upper hand in Kentucky primary
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...hp-top-table-main_daily202-8am:homepage/story
In advance of Tuesday’s primary, Sanders also campaigned heavily in Kentucky over the weekend, and Clinton planned two additional days there full of campaigning, a sign that the campaign thinks it has a chance to stop Sanders from racking up an unbroken string of victories between now and the end of primary voting in June.
Oregon’s primary will also be held Tuesday by mail-in ballot. Republicans held their primary in Kentucky in March. Republicans will vote in Oregon Tuesday, even though Trump was declared the presumptive nominee after his victory in Indiana two weeks ago.
There is little recent public polling in Kentucky, but the Clinton campaign hopes to benefit from a different political environment than the one that greeted her in nearby West Virginia, a state she lost last week by 15 points.
For instance,
Kentucky will hold a closed primary, shutting out independents who have heavily favored Sanders in other contests.
The state’s moderate Democratic leanings may also favor Clinton. She has consistently performed well among Democrats — even in West Virginia, where she lost overall to Sanders but won 49 percent to 45 percent among those registered as Democrats.
“She’s a little more conservative,” said Sherry Baucom, 47, of Louisville, pausing to correct herself. “Not conservative — a little less liberal than Bernie.”
She added: “That’s how she’s going to win the state.”
Kentucky Democrats are also still reeling from conservative Republican Matt Bevin’s victory in the governor’s race in 2015. Bevin succeeded Democrat Steve Beshear, who was prohibited from seeking a third term due to term limits.
Campaigning over the weekend, Sanders also made a point to distance his vision of implementing a “single-payer for all” system from Bevin’s efforts to undermine Obama’s health-care law.
“Let me begin by making a very short statement so the people of Kentucky will understand what kind of president I will be. And that is I understand your new governor, Gov. Bevin, is busy cutting health care and cutting education,” Sanders said in Bowling Green on Sunday. “So if you can imagine the kind of governor Gov. Bevin is, think about Bernie Sanders as a president doing exactly the opposite.”
Over the weekend, Sanders drew thousands from across the state to his rallies in Paducah and Bowling Green, while Clinton drew several hundred to her events in Louisville and Fort Mitchell. And despite Clinton’s efforts, upcoming primaries are likely to reinforce the continued support he has among Democrats across the country.
Sanders supporters in Nevada over the weekend, for example, put up a fight to win a small delegate edge at the chaotic state convention over the weekend, perhaps foreshadowing a similar battle at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.
Clinton also faces significant challenges here. She is still answering for a gaffe she made in March, saying that her renewable energy plan would put the coal industry “out of business.” West Virginia voters got an apology from Clinton ahead of their primary, and she has said the remark was taken out of context. But the effects of that comment still sting in Kentucky, where mining is a smaller but still important industry in parts of the state.
“I think she got hurt by the comments about coal,” said Stephanie Lewis, 40, of Louisville, who supports Clinton. “I’m originally from Eastern Kentucky, and when I was back home for Mother’s Day, I heard about it a lot. . . . That’s kind of Bernie country.”
Clinton and Sanders have virtually the same position on clean-energy jobs, but her articulation of the position has hurt her in coal-producing states.
Sanders is expected to find support among those voters who are still smarting from job losses.
“He stated it differently,” said Bill Garmer, a former chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, explaining why Sanders has not been hurt by his position on coal. “He stated that he’s concerned, that he recognizes that coal jobs are being lost.”
Last week, former president Bill Clinton traveled to Eastern Kentucky to campaign for his wife and to do some damage control. The visit drew protesters, but Clinton sought to remind them of his wife’s commitment to $30 billion in aid for coal country.
“I’m the only candidate who has put on the table a plan for coal country,” Hillary Clinton said in Louisville on Sunday. “Because I don’t think we should leave behind the people who turn on the lights and power the factories in the United States.”
It is unclear whether that effort will pay off, but Sanders is expected to benefit from Clinton’s troubles.
“People see it as a cultural attack,” said Dale Emmons, a longtime Democratic political consultant in Kentucky. “I think the fact that Hillary Clinton is seen as the inevitable Democratic nominee, there will be some who will cast votes for Senator Sanders in protest of Secretary Clinton’s position.”
There are several reasons the Clinton campaign has begun to feel optimistic that it can close the gap.
The campaign’s last-minute work in the state featured signs of her typical outreach to her most faithful voters — starting with the state’s relatively small but reliable African American voting population.
