Clinton: Send Grimes to Washington

Hillary Clinton struck a strong populist tone as she praised Alison Lundergan Grimes (D-Ky.) as the champion of common Kentuckians during a campaign rally Wednesday night.

“If you want to level the playing field so that your voice and your vote and, if you are so able, your contribution are as important as everyone else’s, then you know what you have to do,” Clinton said. “Send Alison to Washington to stand up for you.”

{mosads}The former secretary of State and likely 2016 Democratic front-runner bashed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on a variety of issues: championing the government shutdown, playing politics with healthcare and refusing to raise the minimum wage.

“More than any other race in the country, this election in Kentucky is a referendum on the future,” she said. “It is both a choice and a chance, it is a chance to say ‘no’ to the guardians of gridlock and ‘yes’ to government that actually delivers results for working people.”

The populist turn for Clinton comes amid swirling rumors about her potential candidacy for the presidency in 2016. Some Democrats have worried whether Clinton would speak for the average American, and that fear has sparked buzz surrounding candidates like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Speakers at the rally didn’t shy away from the Clinton 2016 rumors — some said they hoped Clinton would be the “next president.”

Clinton’s numbers-based discussion about why Kentucky benefits from ObamaCare also evoked similar themes to her husband’s 2012 speech at the Democratic National Convention. While former President Clinton defended President Obama’s tax plan by saying “it’s arithmetic,” Hillary Clinton defended ObamaCare by saying “it’s simple math.”

She even ended with a familiar theme from her 2008 concession speech, which praised her voters for making “18 million cracks” in the glass ceiling that has so far kept women out of the presidency.

“Let’s put another crack in that glass ceiling and elect this incredible young woman to the United States Senate,” she said at the end of her remarks. 

Clinton campaigned with Grimes in one of the most contested Senate races in the country. The momentum has been swinging back and forth almost daily, with news of new polls, new ad buys and candidate missteps.

The Democratic challenger spoke to a crowd of supporters before introducing Clinton, welcoming them to “Mitch McConnell’s retirement party” and repeatedly referring to herself as a “Clinton Democrat.”

“If we are going to make sure that the workers across Kentucky finally get an increase in the minimum wage to a living wage of $10.10 an hour and get rid of one who’s voted against it 17 times, it takes Kentucky,” she said. 

She hit back against a new McConnell ad that included a clip of NBC’s Chuck Todd saying that she “disqualified herself” after refusing to answer whether she voted for Obama. 

“You are ready for a strong independent Kentucky woman who can set partisanship aside and who won’t be bullied by Mitch McConnell or Chuck Todd,” she said.

And with the candidates neck and neck with just weeks before Election Day, Grimes made her supporters a promise. 

“Eric Cantor won’t be the only Republican leader going down this year,” she said.