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Taking nothing for granted: Kaine

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Press Trust of India Washington
Last Updated : Nov 07 2016 | 1:07 AM IST
Hillary Clinton's campaign is taking nothing for granted ahead of the election and as such is trying its best to cover as many key battleground states as possible in the remaining time, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine said today.
"We're taking nothing for granted. But we are working very, very hard these last few days," Kaine told the CBS News amid reports that the Clinton campaign is scrambling in some of the traditional Democratic States like Michigan.
"We are seeing tremendous energy in registration, requests for absentee ballots, and especially early vote all across the country. What we know about the early vote in the states that have it, Wisconsin, for example, just set a record in early vote. What we see, we're really excited about," he said.
Kaine said he has advised Clinton to treat herself as the underdog unless she is declared the winner.
"I encouraged her to run in April of 2014. We talked about. She hadn't decided yet. But I said, no matter what the polls say and not matter what you see in an editorial, consider yourself the underdog," he said.
"You're trying to do something that has never been done. If it had been easy for a woman to be president in this country, we would have a woman president of the country. So, consider yourself the underdog until they call you the winner," Kaine said.
"That's what I say to myself, in every race I have ever run in Virginia, which, until recently, has been pretty tough real estate. I tell myself I'm the underdog until they call me the winner. That gives me the discipline to do what I need to do until the polls close right at the very end," he added.

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"We feel very, very good about where we are, but we are taking nothing for granted. I was in Arizona earlier this week, which is a really difficult state for us, but we're making a play there. And we want to do the same here in the Midwest," he said.
"The polls in Wisconsin and Michigan look favorable to us, but polls can be wrong. So, we don't take any for granted. And that's why I'm really excited to be doing events in three different cities in Wisconsin today, before heading to North Carolina and Virginia tomorrow," he added.
Kaine said the polls started getting tighter even before the FBI letter came out in favour of reopening investigations against Clinton.
"I view that as kind of a natural tightening. At the end of a race, undecided voters, if they have a Democratic or a Republican lean, they tend to go back to their team. We are seeing that happen at the end. So, the tightening began before," he said.

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First Published: Nov 07 2016 | 1:07 AM IST

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