Hillary Clinton campaigned hard Sunday in Kentucky, where rival Bernie Sanders looks to extend his winning streak in Tuesday’s primary and further delay her clinching the Democratic presidential nomination.
At St. Stephen’s Church, Clinton appealed to the congregation for support, saying she hoped to have “the opportunity to serve you as your president.” Later, at Canaan Christian Church, she stressed rising above negativity.
“As someone who’s seen a lot of mean things said, I know it can be hurtful. But we can’t give in to that,” Clinton said.
While Clinton leads Sanders by nearly 300 pledged delegates going into primaries in Kentucky and Oregon on Tuesday, Sanders hasn’t stopped winning contests and has pledged to stay in the race until the July convention.
With Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee, Clinton’s team would like to fully turn attention to the general election contest, but cannot completely make that shift yet.
The two primaries will not yield many delegates, but a win in at least one would give Clinton momentum heading into the delegate-rich primaries in California and New Jersey in early June. Oregon is likely to go for Sanders, but Clinton’s campaign thinks the contest is competitive in Kentucky, and she planned to campaign through Monday and is airing television ads.
Clinton easily won the Kentucky primary over Barack Obama in 2008. But this year she has come under criticism in some of the state after saying in March that “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” Clinton later said she misspoke, but the comment has drawn fire in mining communities in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky.
(AP)