NEWS

Clinton’s convention to go straight at trust issue

Heidi M. Przybyla
USA TODAY

Hillary Clinton’s nominating convention that begins Monday is being choreographed to tell a life story about the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee that, despite her decades in the public eye, aims to reveal new insights while offering a sharp contrast to last week's GOP confab.

Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally in Entertainment Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa on July 22, 2016.

In addition to Washington and Hollywood luminaries, Democrats convening in Philadelphia this week have lined up “everyday Americans” — both those she's helped over her career and those she's met on the campaign trail — as character witnesses for prime-time speaking turns and video presentations. The goal is to demonstrate a lifelong commitment to public service and to share more about Clinton's Midwestern upbringing and middle-class roots that preceded her years as first lady, senator and secretary of State.

“There will be some people talking about things that neither she nor they (her family) have really discussed in a big public way before,” said Joel Benenson, her chief strategist. “That will be an important thing,” he said.

Campaign officials want to go straight at her biggest vulnerability: that many Americans say they just don’t trust her or view her favorably.

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The GOP convention featured Republican nominee Donald Trump’s allies bashing Clinton — and delegates frequently chanting "lock her up!" — even as it was short on revelatory personal anecdotes about the Republican nominee (other than from his children).

In contrast, the Democrats’ approach borrows a page from Bill Clinton’s 1992 New York convention that featured average Americans and a video dubbed “The Man from Hope” that reintroduced an elite Yale Law School graduate as a southern boy who grew up poor.

Chelsea Clinton holds her father Bill Clinton's arm at the end of the Democratic convention on July 16, 1992, in New York.

Officials say the videos and speeches in this year's convention will demonstrate a consistency of character over her lifetime, including her activism on issues such as child welfare, health care and women’s rights.

“Voters will see very much a connection from life lessons she learned growing up in the family she did and what has really rooted her in what have become the causes of her life,” said Benenson.

However, the release by Wikileaks of approximately 20,000 hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee — which show party officials favoring Clinton over primary rival Bernie Sanders — will now compete with the narrative Democrats had hoped to present. Amid the growing controversy, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced on Sunday afternoon that she would step down from her post at the end of the convention.

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Clinton’s team knows they can’t easily flip her trust ratings, which, along with Trump’s, are among the lowest of any presidential candidate in memory. They do, however, think they can make voters dislike her a little less by offering testimonials from people she’s had a positive impact on, while making her more relatable.

“She grew up as an ordinary kid in the suburbs of Chicago who went to public school,” said Melanne Verveer, the former first lady’s chief of staff, who remains a close confidante.

Among the things people may not know: Clinton's Methodist faith is “very significant,” Verveer said, citing an influential youth minister who encouraged her to focus on the underserved, including arranging for her to babysit the children of migrant workers while they picked vegetables.

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Clinton, raised in the Sputnik era, once aspired to be an astronaut and, when she was short on cash in college, scavenged the Wellesley campus for discarded items. The emotional impact of learning about her mother’s mistreatment as an orphan was formative. “Out of that has sprung some, if not much of, Hillary’s commitment to children and what they are owed and deserved,” said Verveer.

“You think you know somebody, but you really don’t know their biography, you don’t know what makes them who they are,” she said.

Democrats “have a tremendous opportunity” because “they are following on the heels of a highly negative convention,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia politics expert.

“People want to know that the next four years is not going to be a dumpster fire,” he said.

In this April 24, 2016, file photo, Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign stop at the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, Conn.

The convention is the campaign’s best chance to reach critical audiences before the November election, said Benenson.

“We feel we have some big opportunities with some groups of voters who have leaned a little more Republican in the past,” he said. These include suburban college- and non-college-educated women.

They are also focused on younger voters, who may associate the Clintons with 1990s-era controversies.

The candidate herself, in response to attacks based on past scandals, may have reinforced her negatives by developing a bunker-like attitude, including a reluctance to talk about herself or to the press.

“It becomes a timeless narrative,” said Mo Elleithee, a 2008 campaign official who’s now a Georgetown University scholar. “They don’t know the details," he said of younger voters. "They just know she’s had a lot of controversy around her.”

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While Clinton is beating Trump by a nearly two-to-one margin among those aged 18 to 29, nearly one in five are undecided, according to a new Harvard Institute of Politics poll.

In addition to changing perceptions about Clinton, a goal of the convention is to create a portrait of party unity in contrast to the GOP convention, something that may be made more difficult following the Wikileaks email release that some Sanders supporters say confirms the party was working against the Vermont senator..

“The stars of the Democratic Party are all on board,” said Patti Solis Doyle, a Clinton 2008 campaign manager. First lady Michelle Obama and Sanders will headline Monday's opening night and will be followed later in the week by Bill Clinton, President Obama and Vice President Biden.

Clinton’s “stronger together” message will remain the overarching theme of the four-day convention.

It will “stand in stark contrast to the dark, dismal speakers we had at the Republican convention who were screaming and shrieking at people,” said Benenson.

Philadelphia speakers include Anastasia Somoza, who was born with cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia and interned in Clinton’s Senate office; Karla Ortiz, an American citizen whose parents are undocumented and fear deportation; and Lauren Manning, one of the most severely injured survivors of the Sept. 11 terror attacks whom Clinton helped to secure the medical care.

In addition to the videos, there will be musical performances and entertainment aimed at creating a celebratory mood and drawing more eyeballs. Confirmed celebrities include Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Snoop Dog, Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga, Eva Longoria and America Ferrera.

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The convention is among the campaign’s last chances to recast the personal narrative about Clinton, especially with her favorability ratings dipping further after the FBI director’s criticism of her use of a private email server as secretary of State.

“The simple message is ‘I have been and always will be your champion and Donald Trump’s only in it for himself,’” said Elleithee.

“The second part’s not hard. People believe that about Trump. It’s the first part she needs to focus on,” he said.