Hillary and Bill Clinton will hold eight events in California Friday, days before the primary, in an attempt to thwart the threat of a Bernie Sanders victory there.
Clinton has refocused her efforts on the Golden State in recent days, canceling a New Jersey campaign stop Thursday in order to spend more time there. The schedule change came less than a month after Clinton declared that “there is no way” she would not be the Democratic nominee.
Despite the frontrunner’s initial confidence, a Thursday USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Time poll showed Sanders leading Clinton by one percentage point in California, within the poll’s margin of error. A Wednesday NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll found similar results, with Clinton holding a two-point lead over Sanders among likely California Democratic primary voters, at 49 percent and 47 percent respectively.
The Vermont senator said Sunday that he could win California as well as five other state contests, calling it a “symbolic victory” that would allow him to enter the Democratic convention in July with “the majority of pledged delegates.”
“What I want to do, and I think we can, is win California here, and win under the big vote, do very, very well in the other five states,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “California is the big enchilada, so to speak.”
Meanwhile, Clinton’s campaign has shied away from declaring certain victory in the state.
“Bernie Sanders supporters are still very much looking forward to the opportunity to cast a ballot for him in a state like California,” Clinton’s press secretary Brian Fallon said Wednesday. “I think that California is very meaningful and we’re certainly not treating it as if this is a done deal.”
To boost her prospects there, California governor Jerry Brown, who Clinton called “desperate” in the 1990’s during his presidential run against then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton, endorsed Hillary Tuesday. She is also leveraging her Hollywood connections, with star-studded campaign stops throughout the week. One event Friday features Sophia Bush and Michelle Kwan, while a concert Monday includes musicians like John Legend and Christina Aguilera.
