September 28, 2016 | No Comments
ORLANDO, Fla. — Hillary Clinton wants to paint Donald Trump as a bigot and her ticket as the one of inclusivity, and Tim Kaine is laying the groundwork to do it.
The Democratic vice-presidential nominee is coming off a pre-debate Florida-Georgia swing in which he worked to prop up Democrats’ big tent in a close presidential race, holding events specifically to reach out to evangelical Latinos, the LGBT community and people with disabilities.
The tour previews his strategy for next Tuesday’s debate with Mike Pence. Kaine wants to portray Pence and his running mate as insensitive to people with handicaps, gay voters and minorities — and demonstrate that those voters will be far more comfortable with Clinton.
“Do you believe in LGBT equality or don’t you? If you do, we’re with you, and the other guys [are] against you,” Kaine said at a field office here. “How about equal pay for women? We’re with you, the other guys against you. If you believe in immigration reform, we’re with you, the other guys against you.”
As turned off by Trump as some of these groups may be, they represent relatively small swaths of the population — which explains why they’re rarely the centerpiece of a modern political campaign. But by sending Kaine to events specifically tailored to win over and turn out such voters, Clinton’s campaign and its allies are betting that, in a tight race, relatively small groups could make a big difference.
At a debate watch party in the historic, stunning Church Street Station here, Kaine was joined by leaders of the Human Rights Campaign, a group devoted to LGBT equality and activism. There, HRC President Chad Griffin said Florida’s LGBT community could swing the election.
“President Obama won the last election by fewer than 100,000 votes in Florida. The LGBT community is over 500,000,” Griffin said. “If we turn out, we win.”
Indeed, Kaine, in signature style, has tried to make this point by joking that the Sunshine State should be renamed the “Close State,” a clunky joke that rings true. And in carrying out his tour embracing the Democrats’ diversity and outreach on social issues, Kaine — a former missionary in Honduras and housing lawyer specializing on discrimination — is leaning heavily on the résumé that got him the running mate job in the first place.
“It certainly is part of who he is,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said aboard Kaine’s charter plane. “It’s a very comfortable thing for him.”
Trump’s rhetoric on people with disabilities has been a point of concern among Republicans. He mocked a New York Times reporter with a disability in a rally last year, and it’s a problem for him in both parties. A pro-Clinton super PAC is hitting him on the matter on the airwaves, and it’s a prime reason some Republicans are staying away from Trump.
“It plays into the whole, broader context of not being very tolerant and empathetic,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who is undecided in the presidential race. “That continues to haunt him.”
In Lakeland, Florida, on Monday, Kaine met on the tarmac with Mike Phillips, a Clinton volunteer who has spinal muscular atrophy. Afterward, at a rally, Kaine read aloud a letter from Phillips.
“I really believe that the federal government is America’s heart. It steps in to right America’s wrongs. Slavery’s end, desegregation, women’s rights, LGBT rights, all instances of the federal government stepping in and doing what was right. Now I hope that you and Secretary Clinton will push disability rights forward,” Phillips wrote.
Kaine then held up Trump’s latest book: “Crippled America.”
In an interview, Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who lost both legs in Iraq, said Kaine’s appearance in Florida and Clinton’s rally earlier this month alongside people with disabilities could be a turning point for the community’s political power. Duckworth herself is running against another politician with a disability, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who suffered a devastating stroke four years ago.
“Politicians don’t address people with disabilities. They can be a very powerful voting bloc, and what’s really interesting is that they are constantly overlooked,” Duckworth said. “I hope it comes up [at the debate], either with Sen. Kaine or Secretary Clinton. I think the disability community would cheer.”
While Kaine may force Pence to defend Trump on disabilities, it’s Pence himself who Democrats believe is vulnerable on gay rights. As governor of Indiana, he signed a religious freedom bill that drew major blowback from the business community because it would have allowed some businesses to discriminate against gay people.
Later, Pence signed a change to the bill prohibiting such discrimination, and Pence aides say he has addressed the controversy over the religious freedom bill a number of times and is prepared to address it again at the debate if needed.
It seems likely to come up. On Monday, Griffin refused to say Pence’s name, calling the Indiana governor the “face of hate and bigotry.” Kaine took a different approach, laying flowers outside the Pulse club, where 49 people were killed by a gunman in June — but in the past he has criticized Pence for saying that gay couples could bring about a “societal collapse.”
Kaine’s visit to the club is a “stark contrast to Trump’s vice-presidential nominee, who signed into law a bill that curtailed LGBT rights in his state,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the first openly gay U.S. senator.
Trump did go out on a limb on the issue of gay equality in July at the Republican National Convention, saying he would do everything in his power to protect people in the LGBT community from terrorism. Garnering applause from the crowd, Trump said “it is so nice” to hear cheering from the conservative crowd on the matter.
With that statement, Republicans say they’ve taken the partisan rift over gay marriage and gay rights off the table.
“You hear Trump give this speech and he calls out Republican responsibility to the LGBTQ community. … I can’t imagine another presidential candidate making that one of his major points,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), a staunch Trump backer. “Tim’s a good man, but this is not going to get him any advantage.”
Clinton and Kaine are not only trying to stoke enthusiasm among traditionally liberal constituencies. Kaine also had a roundtable with evangelical Latinos in Orlando — a growing voting bloc, once courted strongly by George W. Bush, that may be up for grabs this fall.
“They’re traditional valued people,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “But they also have other issues they care about: economic upward mobility; they’re largely immigrant communities with very fast-growing churches. And they also care deeply about opportunities and getting ahead. Some of the fastest-growing evangelical churches in Florida are Spanish-based.”
Much of Kaine’s meeting with the Latino leaders at Iglesia El Calvario in Orlando was closed to the media, and the Rev. Dr. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, said his group doesn’t make endorsements.
But Kaine was clearly working the room after he was introduced by “proud undocumented immigrant” Claudia Contreras, whose deportation has been delayed by the Obama administration. He didn’t mention Trump or Pence by name, but it wasn’t hard to tell whom he was referring to.
“Our focus shouldn’t be on deportation en masse but on people who pose serious public safety challenges,” Kaine said. “We don’t want to be a deportation machine. We want to be a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.”
Matthew Nussbaum contributed to this report.