Clinton sets out most efficient path to get to 270

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AP Des Moines
Last Updated : Aug 08 2016 | 8:57 PM IST
Hillary Clinton doesn't appear all that interested in making scenic stops on her state-to-state quest to become president.
The Democratic nominee is instead programming her GPS to take her on the quickest route to collect the 270 Electoral College votes she needs to win the White House.
With three months until Election Day, Clinton's campaign is focused on capturing the battleground states that have decided the most recent presidential elections, not so much on expanding the map.
Clinton's team doesn't rule out an effort at Arizona, a state with a booming population of Latino voters that polls find are loath to support Trump.
And Georgia, a bastion of the Deep South, echoes recent population trends in other Southeastern states where Clinton is competing aggressively.
But neither is among the 11 battleground states that Clinton's television advertising plans and her travel schedule point to as her focus.

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Those states are the perennial top-tier targets Florida and Ohio, plus Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
President Barack Obama carried them all in 2008, and missed out on only North Carolina during his 2012 re-election campaign.
"The last two elections have given Democrats an electoral path for victory," said Clinton campaign adviser John Anzalone.
"And our strategy is to efficiently use our resources to lock down the support we need to reach 270 electoral votes."
After a bump in support for Clinton in national polls that followed the Democratic convention and tracked Trump's recent gaffes, the number of states where Clinton will invest her time and money may get smaller than 11.
When the Clinton campaign booked more than USD 23 million in new television ad time late this past week to start on today, it spent most of the money in just three states: Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Feeling good about Colorado and Virginia, the campaign passed on giving those states a fresh injection of ad dollars, though they remain heavily staffed with organizers.
"President Obama said that it started right here and
there were representatives from 13 colonies that came together to watch the greatest experiment that the world has ever seen. Our parents and grandparents defended that and they marched for civil rights and voting rights," she said.
On the cusp of becoming the first woman president of the United States, Clinton said she will be a president for all Americans, Democrats, Republicans, independents, and not just the people who support her.
"I believe that we all have a role in building a better and stronger America on the progress that we have enjoyed under Barack Obama over the last eight years," Clinton said.
"I am not going to let anybody rip away the progress we have made," she said and accused her opponent for insulting more than half of the population, immigrants, African- Americans, Latinos, Muslims, and women.
"He launched the attack on our democracy, refusing to say whether or not he would accept the outcome of the election. We will show there is no doubt about the outcome of this election," she said.

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First Published: Aug 08 2016 | 8:57 PM IST

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