AURORA – Democratic superstar Hillary Clinton landed in Colorado on Tuesday to stump for fellow party hopefuls who face difficult election bids.
The former federal secretary of state’s visit marked her second appearance in Colorado in just a week. She attended a fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Mark Udall last week in Denver. Udall remains in a dead heat against Republican challenger Cory Gardner, a congressman from Yuma.
Clinton’s visits have been part of a larger get-out-the-vote effort by Democrats, who are making a push in the final two weeks before Election Day.
The event Tuesday at the Radisson Denver Southeast hotel in Aurora – attended by about 900 – also included Gov. John Hickenlooper and Democratic congressional candidate Andrew Romanoff, who both face difficult contests.
Clinton spent most of her time on Udall, highlighting the narrative for the U.S. Senate race, which has been a battle to turn out women voters.
“This election is important to everybody, but it’s especially important to the women of Colorado,” Clinton said, adding that Udall would never “waffle” on a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices.
She said it is not an accident that Colorado’s economy is doing well. Labor officials on Tuesday announced the unemployment rate in September dropped to 4.7 percent; in La Plata County, the rate was 2.9 percent. Clinton credited Hickenlooper and Udall.
“It appears to me that the campaigns being run against both of them are depending upon the voters of Colorado having a mass case of amnesia,” Clinton said to cheers.
Pointing to the recent birth of her first granddaughter, Charlotte, Clinton said she has been thinking a lot about the future.
“I’m grateful she can look forward to a future full of promise; but, I’ll tell you this, you should not have to be the granddaughter of a former president to have the kind of opportunity that every single child in this country deserves,” Clinton said.
Udall said Clinton had been called to Colorado to rally troops because “the stakes couldn’t be higher.”
“You’ve all seen the polls,” he said. “Ignore the polls. The only poll that counts is the poll on Election Day.”
Udall’s campaign has established 25 field offices with about 100 organizers.
Hickenlooper is also fighting for his life against Republican challenger Bob Beauprez, a former congressman.
Hickenlooper touted the state’s unemployment numbers, pointing out that when he took office, the state was facing a $1 billion budget deficit. Since that time, the state also endured devastating droughts, floods and fires.
“We never blinked; we never divided; we never attacked each other,” Hickenlooper said.
Republicans, however, called the Clinton-Udall event a “bailout.” In the past two weeks, Gardner has outraised Udall by over a half-million dollars.
