Clinton stumps in Kentucky to charm white working men

PADUCAH, Kentucky (AFP) – Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton is barnstorming Kentucky ahead of the state’s Tuesday primary, desperate to improve her standing among working-class white men as she pivots toward a general election showdown with Donald Trump.

Clinton’s rival Bernie Sanders is gunning for victory in the Bluegrass State, building on his win last week in neighboring West Virginia as he battles to keep his long-shot nomination bid alive.

The two states are linked to coal, as is much of Appalachia, the largely white, long-struggling eastern US region where many feel they have been given the cold shoulder in the lukewarm recovery from the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

Clinton meanwhile has been treating the state as an opportunity to appeal to a demographic that has consistently snubbed her: working-class white men.

No Democratic presidential candidate has won Kentucky since 1980 except Clinton’s husband Bill.

On Sunday, the former first lady appeared to indicate that Bill would play a role in her administration if elected, promising in widely reported comments to put her husband “in charge of revitalizing the economy.”

Asked during a Monday stop at a diner in Paducah, a city in southwestern Kentucky, whether Bill would be part of her cabinet, she shook her head and said “No” — but reasserted that he would be her ally in office.

“I want to help bring back the kind of economy that worked for everybody in the 1990s,” Clinton told the crowd in a short speech. “I’ve already told my husband that if I’m so fortunate enough to be president and he will be the first gentleman, I’ll expect him to go to work… to get incomes rising.”

Damage control

The Clintons have made several trips to coal country together to try to contain the damage from comments Hillary made in March, when she said she expected to “put a lot of coal companies and coal miners out of business.”

She made the comment during a speech on renewable energies, but the soundbite stung many in Appalachia.

In Fort Mitchell at the weekend she emphasized her determination to help coal country, saying: “We can’t and we must not walk away from them.”

Clinton made three stops in Kentucky on Sunday, and had at least three more planned Monday.

“We’ve got to turn a lot of people out,” she told diners in Paducah. “I’ll tell you this, I’m not going to give up on Kentucky in November!”

Dozens of people pressed up against the windows to catch a glimpse as Clinton shook hands, took selfies, offered hugs — and even chatted to Trump supporters who vowed never to vote for her.

One woman named Debbie Patterson wore a shirt with the slogan: “Anything Bill can do Hill can do better.”

“That is so cute!” marveled Clinton, who was accompanied by Kentucky’s secretary of state, Alison Lundergan Grimes.

With the Democratic nomination in sight, Clinton is repositioning herself for a bruising general election campaign battle against Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

After spending the better part of a year trying to win over the party’s liberal wing, she has broadened her economic message and turned to blue-collar voters.

‘They see through her’

In a November face-off, the billionaire businessman appears destined to hold an advantage over Clinton, at least initially, with working-class whites.

Exit polls in several states have also shown Clinton losing the white male vote by substantial numbers to Sanders.

“They see through her,” real estate manager Bill Dunn said of blue-collar workers as he ate dinner at a barbecue joint in Paducah. “They like honesty, and she’s missing that.”

Truman Burden, a 58-year-old retired pipe-fitter and one-time coal miner, told AFP he hoped to steer his former colleagues away from Trump.

“What I’m trying to tell blue-collar workers is, you know where Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton stand,” he said during the candidate’s stop in Kentucky’s largest city of Louisville on Sunday.

“If you want to take a chance on an unknown, then you may have buyer’s remorse.”

For Cuban-born Lazaro Marti, a truck driver in Louisville, November will bring a tough decision.

“I don’t like Hillary but I’m afraid of Mr. Trump,” he said, shaking his head at Trump’s belligerence towards immigrants.

But he said many of his white working-class acquaintances in Kentucky, whom he called “tough people,” have already circled the wagons.

“They talk about Hillary like they’re talking about the devil,” Marti said.