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Clinton Aims to Win 50 Percent of Popular Vote
Wednesday, October 19, 2016 07:41 AM
By: Ritika Gupta
Hillary Clinton, who maintains a good lead over her Republican opponent Donald Trump according to most polls, hopes to bag at least 50 percent of the popular vote, according to an analysis on The Hill.
A popular and confident Clinton aide noted that it was "very possible" for the Democratic candidate to get above 50 percent.
"Trump has a ceiling, and he's reached it," the aide said, reports The Hill. "It's all about turnout to get her above 50 [and] pouring on the money and spreading out the high-power surrogates."
At the on start, winning 50 percent looked tough as third-party candidates' seized nearly 10 percent support in the polls initially. Both Clinton and Trump were also not looked upon as the best candidates for America.
According to latest opinion polls, which were conducted after Trump's 2005 tape surfaced where he bragged about kissing and groping women, Clinton for the first time is seen inching closer to the 50 percent mark in a four-way race for the first time.
While Monmouth University's latest survey, released Monday, showed Clinton winning support from 50 percent of likely voters against Trump, CBS News' latest four-way poll showed the former secretary of state at 47 percent. Meanwhile, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll had her at 48 percent.
Strategists and other Clinton aides are positive that Democrats will certainly keep the states President Barack Obama won in 2012. These will include victories in Iowa and Ohio — first where polls have always shown Trump ahead of Clinton, and in Ohio, where Trump has been a stronger figure.
Clinton campaign aides also elaborated that the major goal was touching the mandatory 270 electoral votes for a win. The aides are also of the view that a broad margin of victory will speak for itself and automatically rubbish Trump's claim that the election was rigged.
However, not everyone considers getting the 50 percent as important.
Patrick Murray, director of nonpartisan Monmouth University Polling Institute, said, "I don't think it's going to make it any easier for her to govern. She is going to face an issue of legitimacy from a certain segment of the electorate that not even George W. Bush faced in 2000."
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