Clinton promises to fight for ‘underdogs’ during South Florida campaign
Hillary Clinton campaigned before African-American and LGBTQ voters in Broward County Sunday, two reliable Democratic voting blocs.
Her overall message to an African-American church in Fort Lauderdale and a gay club in Wilton Manors was the same: she will fight against discrimination while she accused Donald Trump of stoking it.
“Donald Trump has insulted more than half our population,” she said at The Manor Complex club, listing African Americans, Latinos, POWs and women. “I have been fighting for families and underdogs my entire life. I’m not stopping now.”
Clinton tweaked her messages for the two separate audiences. She talked about how the LGBT community continues to face discrimination at work and her desire to preserve the right of same-sex marriage while she praised the New Mount Olive Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale for working to improve neglected neighborhoods and spoke about her calls to reform the criminal justice system and invest in early childhood education.
Clinton, who is Methodist, quoted Scripture at the church.
“Scripture tells you when there is no vision the people perish,” Clinton said, and then said she would edit that message. “When there is negative, hateful, divisive vision the people also perish.”
When Clinton declared “I am going to defend President [Barack] Obama’s legacy,” including the Affordable Care Act, the congregation rose to give her a standing ovation.
Speaking before a rambunctious packed crowd in Wilton Manors where rainbow flags draped from the balconies, Clinton vowed that “we will work together to achieve the AIDS-free generation.”
She recounted a story in the Washington Post about how Trump showed up at a ribbon cutting for a preschool for children with HIV and AIDS. The Post wrote that Trump sat up front and posed for photos even though he wasn’t a donor.
“Now really who does that?” she asked the crowd as Clinton fans hurled insults toward Trump: “Shame!” and “Loser.”
Clinton told the crowd that while Trump has said he will appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn the 2015 decision to allow same-sex marriage, she came out in support of same-sex marriage in 2013.
“Donald Trump has a terrible record on LGBT rights,” she said. “This election determines whether we continue the process we made or let it be ripped away.”
Clinton’s visit to South Florida comes as she is in a dead heat in the state with Trump. Clinton was ahead by only a fraction of a percentage point according to a Real Clear Politics average of the polls through Thursday.
She has stepped up her campaign appearances in South Florida during the homestretch of the campaign with hopes that Democratic-rich South Florida can outnumber votes for Trump in more conservative parts of the state.
On Saturday night, Clinton appeared at a Jennifer Lopez concert in Miami. On Tuesday, former President Bill Clinton will campaign in Miami-Dade while Hillary Clinton campaigns at the Rev. Samuel Delevoe Memorial Park, 2520 NW Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale. Obama returns to South Florida Thursday.
More than 3.5 million Floridians out of 12.9 million registered voters have cast ballots so far by mail or early voting according to data available Sunday morning.
Clinton began her day Sunday with a brief stop at Fado, an Irish pub in Brickell where the Miami-Dade Young Democrats had gathered for brunch.
She also stopped in at Betty’s Soul Food in Fort Lauderdale and at an early voting site in Pompano Beach, the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center, where a handful of Trump fans waved signs and yelled, “Lock her up!”
At every stop, she urged Floridians to get out and vote to defeat Trump.
“You know how we are going to stop him?” she asked in Wilton Manors. “By showing up with the biggest turnout in America.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2016 at 12:08 PM with the headline "Clinton promises to fight for ‘underdogs’ during South Florida campaign."