Clinton campaign venturing further into GOP territory

Hillary Clinton is expanding her campaign into states Democrats haven't won in decades, her campaign said today, a sign of confidence in her presidential prospects and her mounting efforts to win control of the Senate.

First lady Michelle Obama, one of Clinton's most effective surrogates, is making Clinton's case in Phoenix on Thursday, while the campaign puts an additional USD 2 million in television ads, direct mail and digital spots to help Arizona Democrats running in competitive races for the House and Senate.

Clinton's team is also putting an additional USD 1 million into efforts in Missouri and Indiana, and expanding already existing operations by USD 6 million in seven battleground states, according to campaign manager Robby Mook.
 

Clinton's announcement came as her campaign was hit with another revelation related to the use of a private email server as secretary of state.

Newly released FBI records show a senior State Department official unsuccessfully sought to lower the classification level of an email found on the server, a move Republican Donald Trump's campaign labeled collusion.

The news was the latest twist in controversy that has dogged Clinton's campaign, but has often been drowned out by Trump's erratic campaign, provocative claims and caught-on-tape scandalous sexual comments.

With her lead in opinion polls increasing, Clinton might seem unlikely to need any of the normally solid-red states to win the White House. But her team believes that a wide presidential margin of victory would help end Donald Trump's political movement and undermine his intensifying claims that the election is rigged.

Democrats aren't alone in worrying about Trump's rhetoric about casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election system.

In a Monday morning blitz of Tweets, Trump lashed out at Republicans who have tried to tone down his rhetoric, calling his own party's leaders "so naive" and claiming without evidence that large-scale voter fraud is real.