As the turmoil in the republican party continues and the democratic party tries to gain ground with voters and volunteers for their campaigns, one of the candidates is making bad impressions for the democrats. Hillary Clinton has been scheduled to speak at several events over the past weeks and months and has had some trouble keeping and gaining support.
The democratic candidate had an appointment to speak at an event on Friday at 2:30 at Broward college to the students there. Hillary Clinton was over an hour late to this event, and voters were not happy, especially younger voters. One Broward student, Vikesh Patel, was present at the event and waited patiently for an hour before he and his classmates left the event without ever hearing Clinton speak or even seeing her. To Patel, this was a let down and impacted his views on the candidate and led him and his classmates to decide that they would have to see a different candidate speak instead. Another student, who brought her grandmother to see Clinton speak, was also not happy with the tardiness of Hillary Clinton as they waited for the candidate to arrive and take the stage. "This is not a good impression. Hopefully she can win me over when she gets here, if she gets here. Not doing too good, though," said Nichole Zapata.
Older voters and volunteers who are more used to Clinton's campaign norms were not surprised by her lateness. Older voters and volunteers knew that this was common for candidates at this time and very common for Clinton who has been late to her own events often throughout the campaign. Clinto was late because she was coming from another event fundraising. The question is, how much damage does Clinton's late arrivals do to her campaign? What kind of impact will the loss of support from younger voters have on Clinton's campaign and will it only continue to decline if she continues to be late to her own events? Clinton was also late to an event in Baton Rouge by an hour, an event in Little Rock by thirty minutes, an event in Des Moines by over forty minutes, as well as several other events that she has kept voters and volunteers waiting at.
1 comment:
What I find most interesting about Clinton's lateness is that she is usually coming from another event, such as fundraising. Thus, she has to balance public appearances, which increase likeability and support, with fundraising, which is an equally important (if not moreso) aspect of campaigning. Perhaps, even though she may lose a few votes by being late to an appearance in front of a limited audience, the money she gains from the fundraisers that cause her lateness may bring in more votes. So if she can be late to events but still increase the influence of her campaign, it might just be worth it to disenchant a few voters. I wonder what effect the balancing of these events has on the Coattail Effect that presidential races have on elections for Congress. While an emphasis on fundraising over public appearance may benefit Clinton' individual campaign, if it damages her likeability, especially in key ares, voters may be less likely to vote for their Democratic Congressional candidates if they associate them with Clinton running for President. So maybe Hill should pay more attention to her timeliness—it might impact more than just her own campaign.
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