Bill Clinton eyeing campaign stop in Texas

Bill Clinton is gearing up to hit Texas on behalf of his wife’s presidential campaign, according to a House Democrat who said he’s preparing to host one event.

The former president, a legendary campaigner, has been all but absent from the trail since Hillary Clinton officially launched her White House bid in June. But that might be about to change, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said Thursday.

{mosads}Cuellar, who endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary and again this year, said the campaign wants to send Bill Clinton to his southern Texas district.

“I just got a call — I was about to call somebody — cause they’re saying William Jefferson Clinton might be willing to start traveling, can you host something in Laredo?” Cuellar said. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve done that.’ So I was about to call them and say yes.”

The former president will likely receive a warm reception in the heavily Hispanic district.

Cuellar’s border district has been ground zero for the immigration debate for more than a year, as tens of thousands of illegal immigrants — many of them families and unaccompanied children — crossed into Texas’s Rio Grande Valley last summer.

Hillary Clinton has made immigration reform a top priority of her campaign platform. She’s pushing for comprehensive changes that include a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants and vowing to expand President Obama’s controversial executive actions freeing many of those same immigrants from the threat of deportation.

“If Congress continues to refuse to act, as president, I would do everything possible under the law to go even further,” Clinton said in Nevada in May.

The news of Bill Clinton’s Texas visit follows reports that he will participate in a Sept. 17 fundraiser for his wife in Chicago. The former secretary of State was initially scheduled to attend that event, according to several reports, but called off the appearance to campaign in New Hampshire, where Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has overtaken her in some polls.

The return of Bill Clinton to the trail highlights the troubles facing his wife’s campaign, which is reeling from the political fallout surrounding her use of a personal email account to conduct official business during her tenure atop the State Department.

Although she remains the Democratic front-runner nationally, recent polls indicate that the email uproar has eroded her support to the benefit of Sanders, who has surged. A new Quinnipiac University poll found that Sanders now leads Clinton in Iowa, home of the nation’s first primary election contests.

Clinton’s struggles have fueled speculation that Vice President Biden will enter the 2016 race, a notion Biden has encouraged with recent travels around the country.

Cuellar, for his part, characterized Biden as “a great vice president.” But the Texas Democrat said he’s committed to the Clinton camp regardless of what Biden decides. 

“I love the vice president, and he does a great job,” Cuellar said. “But I personally I’ve already committed to them.”