Hillary Clinton, then junior United States senator from New York, announced her campaign for the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries on her website on January 20, 2007. Clinton was previously the first lady of the United States and first lady of Arkansas prior to her election as U.S. Senator from New York. She is also the wife of former President Bill Clinton. Clinton was the source of much media speculation since having expressed interest in being a candidate in the 2008 presidential election since at least October 2002. (preview only)
Following her announcement of an exploratory committee and candidacy filing on January 20, 2007, with the FEC, she began fundraising and campaigning activities. For several months Clinton led opinion polls among Democratic candidates by substantial margins until Senator Barack Obama pulled close to or even with her. Clinton then regained her polling lead, winning many polls by double digits; by autumn 2007 she was leading all other Democratic candidates by wide margins in national polls. She placed third in the Iowa caucus behind Barack Obama and John Edwards, and trailed considerably in polls shortly thereafter in New Hampshire before staging a comeback and finishing first in the primary there. She went on to win a plurality of votes in Nevada, but won fewer delegates in Nevada than Obama, then lost by a large margin in South Carolina. On Super Tuesday, Clinton won the most populous states, including California and New York, while Obama won more states total. The two earned a nearly equal number of delegates and a nearly equal share of the total popular vote. Clinton then lost the next 12 caucuses and primaries to Obama, and lost the overall delegate lead to him for the first time. After an increasingly aggressive round of campaigning, Clinton broke the string of losses with wins in the Rhode Island, and Ohio primaries.
Clinton subsequently lost in Wyoming, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon, and won in Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, and South Dakota. On the final day of primaries on June 3, 2008, Obama had gained enough pledged- and super-delegates to become the presumptive nominee; she then suspended her campaign on June 7, 2008, and endorsed Barack Obama.
While losing the delegate count, and thus the nomination, she earned more popular votes than Barack Obama (though unlike Clinton's name, Obama's name wasn't on the ballot in the 2008 Michigan Democratic presidential primary; had all of the "Uncommitted" votes in the Michigan primary been counted as votes for Obama, Obama would have very narrowly won the popular vote as well). In the general election, Barack Obama defeated Senator and Republican nominee John McCain of Arizona, and nominated Clinton as the 67th Secretary of State, an office in which she served until February 2013.
In the 2016 presidential election, Clinton would go on to become the Democratic presidential nominee, but was defeated by Republican nominee Donald Trump, who endorsed her in the 2008 primaries.
Pre-announcement events In July 2005, the magazine Washington Monthly ran two side-by-side articles debating the pros and cons of a potential Clinton candidacy.
Announcement of candidacy
Clinton announced formation of her exploratory committee on January 20, 2007, with a post on her website. In a statement on her website, she left no doubt that she had decided to run: "I'm in. And I'm in to win."HillaryClinton.com - Special Feature at Clinton's website She filed the official paperwork for an exploratory committee.Hillary Clinton Opens Presidential Bid, Washington Post, January 21, 2007
Staff and policy team
Initial team Clinton's campaign was run by a team of advisers and political operatives. Patti Solis Doyle was the first female Hispanic to manage a presidential campaign, which she did from its inception. Deputy campaign manager Mike Henry had managed Tim Kaine's successful campaign for Governor of Virginia in 2005 and coordinated the Democratic advertising efforts for the Senate elections of 2006."Key People-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) ", George Washington University. Accessed May 30, 2007. Mark Penn, CEO of PR firm Burson-Marsteller and president of polling company Penn, Schoen & Berland was described as Clinton's "strategic genius" in a role likened to that which Karl Rove played in George W. Bush's campaigns. Howard Wolfson, a veteran of New York politics, served as the campaign spokesperson. Evelyn S. Lieberman, who worked for Clinton when she was First Lady and served as Deputy White House Chief of Staff, was the chief operating officer of the campaign. Ann Lewis, White House communications director from 1997 to 2000, was Senior Advisor to the campaign. Cheryl Mills was general counsel for the campaign. Jonathan Mantz was finance director, Mandy Grunwald the lead media consultant, Neera Tanden the campaign's policy director, Kim Molstre the director of scheduling and long-term planning, Phil Singer the deputy communications director, Leecia Eve a senior policy advisor, Nathaniel Pearlman the chief technology officer, and Minyon Moore a senior policy advisor.Who's Who at Team Clinton Chris Cillizza, The Washington Post, January 22, 2007 Other campaign workers also date from the "Hillaryland" team of the White House years.
Other advisers and supporters included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Richard Holbrooke, Sandy Berger, Wesley Clark, former Rep. and vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, former Governor and U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, and former Secretary of Defense William Perry. Less well-known but key region and subject specialists were the focus of an intense recruiting battle between her and fellow candidate Barack Obama.
An October 2007 study of ongoing presidential campaign staffs showed that 8 of her 14 senior staff were women, as were 12 of her 20 top paid staff and 85 of her 161 nominally paid staff; overall she had the largest percentage of women in her campaign of any candidate surveyed other than Mike Huckabee.
February 2008 reorganization On February 10, 2008, Solis Doyle ceased duties as campaign manager, and become a senior adviser, traveling with Clinton. Although Solis Doyle claimed the unanticipated length of the primary campaign led to her to resign the post, campaign insiders confirmed that she was ousted. Solis Doyle had survived three previous efforts to oust her.
Maggie Williams was appointed campaign manager; she had been Clinton's chief of staff at the White House. In January, Williams had been brought in on a thirty-day assignment as a senior advisor, and had demanded clarity in the chain of command with the authority to settle internal strategy and policy disputes, threatening to leave the campaign. Within the next few days, Deputy Campaign Manager Mike Henry also stepped down, as did two top staff members for her web-based operations. In two in-depth accounts by Joshua Green in The Atlantic, he attributed Solis Doyle's downfall to her failure to manage campaign spending, her inability to prevent factional disputes within the campaign, and her not recognizing Obama's candidacy as a serious threat earlier. Henry's departure was expected, as Solis Doyle had originally brought him in to the campaign.
April 2008 strategist change Chief campaign strategist Mark Penn resigned on April 6, 2008, amid controversy surrounding his work with the Colombian government and the free trade bill opposed by many big unions. Penn resigned after news surfaced he had met with the Colombian ambassador, not as Clinton's adviser but as CEO of his P.R. firm, though he admitted the subject of the meeting was the trade bill. Penn was replaced with Geoff Garin, a respected pollster, who became the chief strategist. He was slated to continue work for the campaign via his polling firm.
Fundraising
Methods and goals In January 2007 Clinton announced that she would forgo public financing for both the primary and general elections due to the spending limits imposed when accepting the federal money.Death Knell May Be Near For Public Funds, New York Times, January 23, 2007 She had $14 million left from her 2006 Senate race, which put her in a good starting position compared to other Democratic candidates. Clinton insiders said the senator's goal was to raise at least $60 million in 2007.Clinton Fundraising Goes Full Force, The Washington Post, February 7, 2007 Longtime Democratic political and finance leader Terry McAuliffe was Clinton's campaign chair.
HillRaisers
"Bundlers" that collected more than $100,000 for her campaign became known as "HillRaisers"; (a play on the expression hellraiser) and were asked to raise as much as $1 million each. Elton John raised $2.5 million in a benefit concert for Clinton at Radio City Music Hall, on April 9.
By August 2007, there were 233 HillRaisers. They included Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Steven Rattner, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, John Grisham, Magic Johnson, Ronald Perelman, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Steven Spielberg and many others.Clinton Enters '08 Field, Fueling Race For Money, New York Times, January 21, 2007"Hillary for President: HILLRAISERS" , hillaryclinton.com. Accessed September 2, 2007.
In late August 2007, HillRaiser Norman Hsu came into considerable negative publicity when it was revealed that he was a 15-year-long fugitive on investment fraud charges and had also possibly engaged in violations of campaign finance law as a "bundler".
In 2015, Alex Heckler was listed as one of Hillary Clinton's most important "bundlers." In 2016, Heckler hosted a fundraising event for Clinton at his Miami beach home.
Results
On April 1, 2007, Clinton announced she had raised $26 million during the preceding three months, along with an additional transfer of $10 million from her Senate campaign account to her presidential account. This dwarfed the previous record for the comparable quarter, which was $9 million by Al Gore in 1999.
For the second quarter of 2007, Clinton raised about $27 million, less than Obama's newly set records for the quarter of $32.5 million in donations from 258,000 contributors but more than all other candidates. According to OpenSecrets, during the first six months of the year, about 70% of her funds came from donors giving the maximum $2,300; this compared to 44% for Obama and 42% for Edwards.
For the third quarter of 2007, which typically sees lower numbers than the rest of the year, Clinton led all candidates with $27 million raised and with 100,000 new contributors. This beat Obama's $20 million and allowed Clinton to apportion some of the amount for an expected general election race rather than the primary season.
In the fourth quarter of 2007, Clinton raised approximately $20 million, bringing her total for the year to more than $100 million. This equaled the amount raised by Obama in the quarter, and was also similar to what Republican fundraising Ron Paul garnered during the quarter.
During January 2008, Clinton raised $13.5 million. This paled in comparison to Obama's $32 million for the same month, and Clinton was forced to loan her campaign $5 million from her and Bill Clinton's personal assets. Further, Clinton's campaign ended January with $7.6 million in debt, aside from the personal loan. Rebounding from weak fundraising in January 2008, Sen. Clinton expected to raise $35 million in February 2008—a figure rival Sen. Barack Obama's campaign said it would surpass. On March 6, 2008, it was revealed that Senator Obama raised a record $55 million in February, what the Associated Press reported as the largest amount of funds raised in one month in the history of Presidential primaries.