The New York primary is already turning into a preview of what a Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton general election would look like.
Both front-runners have called the state home — Clinton represented New York in the U.S. Senate for eight years and Trump has been a significant figure in the New York City real estate market — and enjoy heavy leads in their respective April 19 primaries.
Virtually assured of the Democratic nomination despite a recent Bernie Sanders winning streak, Clinton has already shifted much of her focus to why Trump would be bad for New York if he was elected president. Facing the possibility of a contested Republican convention if he doesn’t get at least 1,237 delegates, Trump has had to concentrate more on his primary opponents, even though he is far ahead in Empire State polling and his main foe, Ted Cruz, has mocked “New York values.”
“They want to create the perception that Hillary Clinton is the best facing Trump in the fall,” New York-based Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf told the Washington Examiner.
“Hillary Clinton is so far ahead she’s now focused on making Trump the face of Republicans while she is the face of Democrats,” he added. “Trump is effectively her best recruiting device for Latinos and blacks across the country who see Trump as being against them.”
On Monday morning, Clinton released the campaign’s second ad in a six-figure New York media buy aimed at contrasting her policies with Trump’s.
“Donald Trump says we can solve America’s problems by turning against each other. It’s wrong and it goes against everything New York and America stand for,” Clinton said in the 30-second spot entitled “Stronger Together.”
In the other anti-Trump ad, “New York,” Clinton explains that New Yorkers “know better” than to elect a president who talks about building border walls and banning Muslims. While the primary is far from over, the former secretary of state’s campaign is preparing Democrats for what will likely be a tough fight in the fall.
“You want to make sure Democrats are aggressively mobilized in the state and ready for November,” New York Democratic National Committee memeber Robert Zimmerman told the Washington Examiner. “As Trump has become more of a factor, that’s been a great rallying cry for Democrats. Voter registration is at an all-time high.”
While Clinton has yet to clinch the Democratic nomination, her 688-delegate lead will be hard for Sanders to catch. The Vermont senator is also a native New Yorker from Brooklyn, but Clinton is usually ahead by double digits in polling of state Democrats.
Even with his state lead, Trump is focusing all his energy on clinching the GOP nomination. But he still turns his criticisms to Clinton at times, often to poke fun at her on Twitter or in campaign speeches. On Friday, Trump even took the chance to laugh at Clinton’s New York City subway ride earlier that week, calling the trip “pandering.”
According to the latest general election matchup polls, Clinton will trounce Trump in New York come November by over 20 points. But she is still trying to prepare for a fight.
“You can’t ever take any opponent lightly. Trump’s negatives are so high and his approval ratings are so low so many Democrats may think it’s an automatic win,” Zimmerman added. “But nothing’s an automatic win.”
