Clinton Campaign Braces For Losses Tonight
(CBS)
On primary day in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., Hillary Clinton will make last-minute visits to polling places, hoping news coverage of her stops will trigger undecided voters to turn out.
As is custom on election days, while Clinton makes visits to strategic locations in the area, her senior staff sits in what they call the “boiler room” to await results and to get information from staff on the ground at polling locations. This information will dictate part of Clinton’s schedule this morning. She will oftentimes make phone calls into local radio shows or stand on street corners with supporters if her advisors think she’s in a close contest in a particular area.
However, despite her efforts today, a source close to the campaign is downplaying expectations, telling CBS News that “we will lose all three (contests) today, probably by wide margins.”
“We are still actively working them because we feel like there are opportunities to pick up delegates," the source said, pointing out that since delegates are allocated proportionally, she can still pick up delegates even if she loses statewide.
"There are several districts in Virginia, for example, that we have targeted because they have odd number delegates and we think we have some opportunities to pick up the one. So, while we expect to lose we’re focused on the delegate math.”
Another reason why today’s contests will prove difficult for Clinton, particularly in Maryland and D.C., is because of the large African-American population, a group that has been voting for Obama in large numbers.
On the other hand, Clinton’s strongest minority support comes from Hispanic voters, a group that helped her win in states like California and Arizona.
Because of her strength with Hispanics, she will head to Texas later this afternoon with stops at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Clinton is expected to campaign in one of the the nation's most southern cities, near the Mexican border, tomorrow morning.
Her campaign is calling Texas “the big one” referring to the large number of delegates at stake there on Mar. 4.
Clinton will “start campaigning hard” in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to the campaign source,
“We’ve made it pretty clear all along that Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania were going to be important states for us and states where we think we’ll do well.”
