Clinton looks to make gains in red states

Hillary Clinton's increasingly confident campaign is pouring resources into red states previously considered to be a longshot at best for a Democrat presidential candidate.

On a call with reporters Monday morning, campaign manager Robby Mook announced the campaign would spend an additional $2 million in a bid to win Arizona, "dramatically" expanding television, direct mail and digital advertising in an effort that, if successful, "would foreclose a path for Donald Trump to win the White House."

The campaign will also send first lady Michelle Obama to Phoenix on Thursday to bolster get-out-the-vote efforts and encourage early voting. She joins Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, and former rival for the nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who are also making trips to the state this week.

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Mook pointed to Trump's "hateful rhetoric" attacking Sen. John McCain, the longtime Arizona Republican, as giving Clinton an opening in the state. Last summer, Trump said McCain was only a war hero "because he was captured," and last week called McCain "foul mouthed" after McCain dropped his support for Trump over a 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape in which Trump can be heard describing groping women without consent.

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A state that has gone blue just once since 1948 – President Bill Clinton narrowly edged Bob Dole there in 1996 – Arizona has long been on Democrats' wish list, with demographics trending in their favor. But Republican nominee Donald Trump's stumbles and, in particular, his invective rhetoric that has fired up Hispanic voters to turn out against him, has spurred a dramatic shift that has put the state in play far sooner than was anticipated.

In 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama lost the state to McCain, the Republican nominee, by nearly 9 points, and to Mitt Romney in 2012 by a slightly bigger margin. This year, the race looks to be extremely close: RealClearPolitics' average of recent polls has Trump ahead there by less than 1 percent. A poll conducted earlier this month found Clinton ahead by 2 points.

As Trump in recent weeks has become mired in responding to the "Access Hollywood" tape and the women who have subsequently come forward to accuse him of inappropriate behavior, Clinton's campaign has deliberated just how broadly to deploy its resources.

Mook said they have decided to keep the majority of their focus in the remaining three weeks before the election on the key battlegrounds of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire.

Polling averages show Clinton ahead in all but Iowa, which, including states safely in her column, would give her well over 300 electoral votes – comfortably exceeding the 270 needed to win the election.

With the expansion into Arizona, along with an ad buy in major media markets in Texas and $1 million split between Indiana and Missouri, the campaign also hopes to help lift Democratic Senate candidates whose races will determine the majority of the upper chamber next year.

All told, Mook said the coordinated campaign has spent $100 million, raised through its joint fundraising agreement with the Democratic National Committee and state parties, specifically to aid congressional, gubernatorial and local races.

"The lion's share [of attention] is going to those core battleground states but also those that have those key Senate races, but we do see opportunity in Arizona," Mook said. "We think that it's an uphill climb, but our mission as a presidential campaign is to make sure that Secretary Clinton wins at least 270 electoral votes."

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