Hillary Clinton.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK – Returning to the state where she served as first lady for 12 years, Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to lift the spirits of Arkansas Democrats on Saturday night after recent losses that have turned what was once friendly turf for her party into decidedly Republican territory.
Headlining a fundraiser for the state Democratic Party, the front-runner for the party’s presidential nomination acknowledged the challenges Democrats face after Republicans swept statewide and congressional offices last year – but said voters’ support for raising the minimum wage offered hope.
“Don’t forget, voters did come out and pass an increase in the minimum wage,” Clinton told more than 2,000 people gathered at the party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, referring to the vote raising the minimum wage to $8.50 an hour by 2017. “Arkansas voters know paychecks need to grow, they know the economy is still stacked for those at the top. We just have to offer a plan for more growth and more fairness they can believe in and vote for.”
Her visit comes months after a GOP-dominated election that featured several candidates with Clinton ties. Former U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, who got his start in politics as Bill Clinton’s driver, lost his bid for governor against Asa Hutchinson, an ex-congressman who was one of the House managers in the former president’s impeachment trial.
Party officials have said the likelihood of Clinton being the nominee is helping recruit candidates for dozens of legislative races. The party said it expected to raise about $450,000 from Saturday’s fundraiser.
“She’s helping us rebuild the party financially just by being here,” State Democratic Party Chairman Vince Insalaco said.
Bill Clinton was a regular presence on Arkansas’ campaign trail, returning to the state frequently to stump for Ross and Mark Pryor, who lost his bid for a third term in the U.S. Senate. Such a barnstorming tour from Hillary Clinton seems unlikely in the state next year.
Top Democrats say they still believe she has a chance to win the state, which hasn’t voted for a Democrat for president since her husband’s 1996 re-election. Former Gov. Mike Beebe noted that much of the GOP’s gains have been tied to President Barack Obama’s unpopularity.
“If anybody on that side of the aisle has a right now has a chance to win the state, she does,” Beebe told reporters. “But it’ll be an uphill battle because the state has gone significantly red.”
Clinton peppered her roughly half-hour speech with references to her time in Arkansas, including her advocacy on education and children’s health issues during her time as first lady. Though she grew up in Illinois, she’s so linked to Arkansas that her name adorns the national airport and a children’s library in Little Rock.
Another White House hopeful, businessman Donald Trump, headlined a fundraiser for Republicans a night earlier. Trump came under fire Saturdayfor criticizing Arizona Sen. John McCain’s war record, saying the 2008 GOP nominee and former prisoner of war “is a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
Clinton condemned Trump’s remarks and accused the GOP field of being slow to repudiate his other controversial rhetoric.
“There’s nothing funny about the hate he is spewing at immigrants and their families and now the insults he’s directed at a genuine war hero, Sen. John McCain,” Clinton said at the fundraiser. “It’s shameful and so is the fact that it took so long for most of his fellow Republican candidates to start standing up to him.”
(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, broadcast or distributed.)
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