Clinton: Midterm elections should motivate women

LISA LEFF
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton urged Democratic voters not to be complacent about the November midterm elections, saying Monday that working women and their families will lose out on a better future if Republicans gain control of both houses of Congress.

The former secretary of state made the remarks during a sold-out women’s luncheon in San Francisco that raised $1.4 million for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The fundraiser was hosted by House Democratic leader and former speaker Nancy Pelosi, who joked that she was ready to give up her own title as the highest-ranking woman in U.S. politics to elect a female Democrat as president “and soon,” a crowd-pleasing reference to the possibility of Clinton running for president in 2016.

“If Hillary Clinton, mother and grandmother, decides to run for president she will win, and like I have said before she will be one of the best-prepared leaders to preside in the Oval Office,” Pelosi said in her introduction to Clinton’s speech. “That she happens to be a woman is a bonus and a wonderful, wonderful thing.”

After acknowledging several congressional Democrats in the room who are running for re-election, Clinton told her overwhelmingly female audience that only Democrats have fought and would continue fighting to raise the minimum wage and for paid family leave, affordable child care and other policies that primarily benefit low-income and middle-class women.

“It is not easy serving and every year it seems to get more challenging, but these candidates and many more across the country have a plan to jump-start the middle class and once more make it work for everyone,” she said. “These elections in two weeks and one day come down to a simple question: who is on your side?”

Clinton reminded the audience of the state the nation’s economy was in when President Barack Obama took office and Pelosi presided over the House and accused the Republican Party of trying to rewrite history by blaming Democrats for the slow recovery.

“It’s truly regrettable that despite all the great work Nancy did and President Obama, given what was inherited when the president came into office that we are having to work so hard to elect and re-elect Democrats. It’s as though the other side wants to pass an air of amnesia over America,” she said.

Tickets for the luncheon ranged in price from $500 per person to $32,400 per couple and included a performance by singer-songwriter Carole King, who led the audience in singing her 1967 song,” (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”

Clinton was scheduled to appear on Monday night at a $32,400-per-person fundraiser in Los Angeles benefiting the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The event is hosted by several prominent players in the entertainment industry, including Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, who backed Obama in the 2008 president election, and director Steven Spielberg, who endorsed Clinton six years ago.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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