With her campaign hemorrhaging voters after the “deplorables” video surfaced, #Hillary Clinton is reaching out to former Vice President Al Gore. According to the “NY Times”, the Clinton camp has reached out to the former vice president’s staff to lessen the flow of voters looking at a third-party choice. Gore understands the importance of courting these voters: they cost him the bitter presidential race of 2000, where Florida was lost to George W. Bush as voters chose Ralph Nader over him. Gore said in August that Hillary could lose the election if too many voters choose the Green Party candidate.
But even Gore couldn’t keep his home state of Tennessee from turning red in 2000. If he had won that state, then losing Florida wouldn’t have mattered. Priorities USA, a super PAC pushing pro-Clinton ads, has done extensive polling that shows voters are reluctant to embrace Clinton, even among people who strongly dislike Republican nominee #Donald Trump. A strategist for the super PAC said, “We’ll be launching a multimillion-dollar digital campaign that talks about what’s at stake and how a vote for a third-party candidate is a vote for Donald Trump.”
Gore to the rescue?
One high-profile Democrat who has stayed out of the race is Al Gore. He reluctantly endorsed Clinton a day before the Democratic National Convention using Twitter. But he’s largely kept a low profile, avoiding the limelight, most talk shows, the convention, and the campaign trail. That could change with the polls showing Trump winning in a four-way race. Jill Stein, who isn’t on all 50 state ballots, is running as the Green Party presidential candidate. Gary Johnson is running on the Libertarian platform and is on all state ballots.
The “Times” reports the Clinton campaign has reached out to Gore about getting him out to promote the lagging candidate. They want Gore to let voters know that Clinton cares about the environment and is committed to fighting #Climate Change. That may be tough as a new poll from the United Nations shows climate change ranks dead last in its world citizen’s priorities poll, including the United States.
