In final days, elected Democrats turn out to campaign for Clinton while Trump goes it alone

As Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump race to the finish in the final days of the 2016 presidential election, Democratic officials are turning out in droves to campaign for the former secretary of state while the GOP nominee and his running mate are mostly going it alone.

Hillary Clinton has personally attended nearly a dozen rallies this week in key battleground states, including Ohio, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Michigan.

Her team of campaign surrogates, which includes former President Bill Clinton, President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have crisscrossed the country this week making their closing arguments for their nominee.

Kaine has made multiple campaign appearances in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona and Florida. Bill Clinton has held rallies in Florida, Iowa and Colorado. Sanders meanwhile has toured New Hampshire, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa and Nebraska on behalf of the Democratic nominee. Warren, for her part, appeared this week at two rallies in Nevada.

Obama spoke at campaign events this week in North Carolina and Florida. Biden has appeared in Pennsylvania as well as in the Sunshine State.

Clinton currently leads Trump in Pennsylvania by 2.8 points, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average. She’s also ahead by 4.5 points in Maine, 5.5 points in Wisconsin, 2.9 points in Colorado, 4.7 points in Michigan, 0.5 points in Florida and 3 points in Iowa.

Trump meanwhile leads in New Hampshire by 1.6 points, according to the same polling averages. The GOP nominee also has a 1.7 point-lead in North Carolina, and he leads by 4.5 points in Ohio, 27 points in Nebraska, 2.2 points in Nevada and 4 points in Arizona.

The more than 50 Clinton campaign events this week featuring current and former Democratic officials flying solo, with 12 more planned for this weekend, doesn’t account for the efforts of the unelected members of the Democratic nominee’s team, including her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and Kaine’s wife, Anne Holton. The Democratic campaign rally tally also doesn’t account for all the current members of Congress who’ve appeared onstage with Clinton, the Democrats who are running for office this year who campaigned with her and the many, many A-list celebrities who stumped on her behalf.

In short, Clinton and her army of supporters have been extremely busy this week appealing to voters in crucial swing states.

Trump, on the other hand, is running something of a two-man show with his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

The GOP nominee has appeared at campaign rallies this week in Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, New York, North Carolina and New Hampshire. Pence, for his part, has held rallies in Florida, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Michigan and Iowa.

Clinton leads in New Mexico by 3.5 points, and she’s ahead in New York by approximately 20 points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

Trump and Pence speak at campaign rallies separately, and they do occasional joint-appearances. And that’s about it.

Their campaign has received assists from members of the Trump family, and a handful of current and former Republican officials, including New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former New Hampshire Mayor John Sununu and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have also joined the candidate on the trail. But none of these supporting acts hold rallies separately from the nominee.

Many leading Republican lawmakers are avoiding being seen with Trump in public, and many others have stated outright that they will not campaign on his behalf.


Together, Trump and Pence have done almost all of the heavy lifting for their campaign, holding a little more than 20 rallies this week. Though the Trump campaign has seven more rallies scheduled for this weekend, they’re still fall far behind Clinton’s get-out-the-vote efforts this week.

But what the Trump ticket lacks in number of campaign events, it makes up for in supporter enthusiasm and rally attendance. The GOP nominee regularly plays to large, packed arenas, while Clinton’s rallies are hosted mostly in small, intimate venues with just a fraction of the attendance numbers enjoyed by Trump.

The contrast between Trump and Clinton’s rallies and surrogate schedules seemingly reflects a larger story in the 2016 election: The Democratic nominee has a unified party, but lacks base enthusiasm, and vice versa for the billionaire businessman.

Clinton has, for the most part, enjoyed the backing of a unified Democratic Party, while Trump continues to battle elements within his own party. Though Clinton faced some pushback earlier in the election from factions loyal to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the threat from that group was effectively neutered at the Democratic National Convention in July when the Vermont senator endorsed her. Sanders went on to become one of Clinton’s top campaign surrogates.

Trump, on the other hand, continues to face opposition from the so-called “#NeverTrump” movement, which produced an independent presidential candidate, Even McMullin, who has threated the GOP nominee’s chances in Utah.

Then again, though Trump lacks the benefit of being able to share the workload with a unified GOP, he enjoys robust support from the party’s base, while Clinton continues to battle a persistent lack of voter enthusiasm within her own party.

“Strong enthusiasm” among the Democratic nominee’s supporters has declined recently, putting her behind Trump, according to a Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll. By 53 to 43 percent, more Trump supporters say they are “very enthusiastic” about their candidate, the poll found.

Likely aware of Clinton’s enthusiasm issues, which have dogged her entire candidacy, the Democratic nominee and her team have implored supporters to put personality aside, and to think of the election in terms of being a pivotal moment in history.

“There are people who say they don’t like either candidate,” Sanders said at a campaign stop this week. “What I am asking you is to go beyond personality. Take a hard look at the issues that impact the working class and middle class of this country, and on every issue, you will find that Hillary Clinton is far superior to Donald Trump.”

The Democratic nominee herself said elsewhere, “Sometimes the fate of the greatest nations comes down to single moments in time.”

“This is one of those make-or-break moments for the United States. It is in your hands,” she added during an address Friday in Pittsburgh, Pa.

This article has been updated.

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