Last Tuesday night Hillary Clinton crushed Bernie Sanders in New York’s Democratic presidential primary and in two days it could be a replay. Five states hold primaries Tuesday and polls indicate Clinton is ahead in all of them: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware.
Clinton has double digit leads over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, in four of the five states with only Connecticut inside 10 percentage points. However, she contrasted her position on Second Amendment issues with Sanders.
“Nobody is more powerful than the gun lobby because they have figured out how to intimidate elected officials at all levels, who basically just stop thinking about this problem because they’re too scared to stand up to the NRA,” Clinton said Thursday. “That’s what we have to do in Washington and nationally. We have to turn this into a voting issue.”
Erica Smegielski, the daughter of the principal killed during the Sandy Hook shooting, has cut an ad for the campaign.
The Democratic front-runner’s campaign announced on Friday she will be back in Connecticut today, with campaign events in New Haven and Bridgeport, and stops at Central Falls High School in neighboring Rhode Island, which also has a Tuesday primary.
Meanwhile, Murphy anticipates campaigning for Clinton by himself on Monday, he said, the day before the April 26 primary.
The former secretary of state is poised to extend her delegate lead Tuesday and pressed yesterday on reports that she has begun her search for a running mate, Clinton shook her head and replied: “I’m just working hard to win on Tuesday.”
Clinton leads in polling in the northeastern states, and if she sweeps all five Sanders will be hard pressed to exit the race.
In Pennsylvania, Clinton turned to the general election, knocking Trump and Republican candidate Ted Cruz and tailoring her message to working-class voters eager to see a return of manufacturing jobs.
“These are not jobs that can be exported, they have to be done right here in Pennsylvania,” Clinton told supporters this week in Philadelphia.
Politics professor Terry Madonna of Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania said Sanders is “obstinate” about staying in the race, perhaps to earn a speaking spot at the Democratic convention in July.
Clinton “is the inevitable nominee now and the only question is at what point does she wrap up the magic number” of necessary delegates, Madonna told AFP.
