Latest opinion polls in the US indicate that Hillary Clinton’s lead over her Republican rival Donald Trump has narrowed dramatically in the wake of the latest FBI investigation into her…
ADVERTISEMENTLatest opinion polls in the US indicate that Hillary Clinton’s lead over her Republican rival Donald Trump has narrowed dramatically in the wake of the latest FBI investigation into her emails. But will it be enough to decide who will become the 45th President of the United States?
Euronews’ Mark Davis spoke to our Washington Correspondent Stefan Grobe about how both candidates are trying to sway undecided voters ahead of election day.
Mark Davis, Euronews: ‘‘Time is fast running out for the two main candidates in the race for the White House. Joining us again for a US election update is Stefan Grobe, our man in Washington. Stefan, what’s the state of play?’‘
Stefan Grobe, Euronews Washington Correspondent:
‘‘Well, Mark a week in politics can be an eternity right. Remember last week we were talking about Hillary Clinton winning really big and possibly flipping Texas and Georgia. Now we’re looking at a different picture, but not entirely different and the reason I say this, is because of real votes and real numbers, not polls. Early voting has been going on for quite some time in many states and we know how many registered democrats and how many registered republicans have already cast their votes, and compared to 2012 at this stage the numbers look very good for Clinton in Colorado and North Carolina and reasonably good in Florida. Now if she carries these three states, the race is over. On the other hand, Trump is definitely reaping the benefits of the FBI bombshell and the race has definitely tightened.’‘
Mark Davis, Euronews: ‘‘So, where are the candidates focusing their resources in the final week?’‘
Stefan Grobe, Euronews Washington Correspondent:
‘‘The focus has really shifted to states that are reliably democratic, especially the so called blue wall up north, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. These are the states that Donald Trump is targeting to forge a path to victory. He’s making a late pitch to blue collar workers, blue collar voters, as someone who channels there economic frustrations. Now this may or may not work. Now the Clinton campaign, which is flush with money, is following Trump into these states buying ads in the north, in Colorado, in Virginia, which could be a sign that Clinton is nervous and that she wants to defend what seems to be in her column, rather than make a play in traditional red states like Texas and Georgia.’‘
Mark Davis, Euronews: ‘‘Now, you’ve been speaking this week of Trump’s lack of a ground game. How can Clinton use her own ground game to her advantage?’‘
Stefan Grobe, Euronews Washington Correspondent:
‘‘Well, having a ground game means that you have canvassers to laser focus on voters you need to turn out, based on very sophisticated data banks, with information about voters income, status, consumption habits, etc. It’s not about randomly knocking on doors, it’s about engaging low propensity voters who are already in your corner and who are registered but do not participate in elections regularly. The Clinton campaign has that sort of operation going in critical battleground states like, for instance Florida, where they have hundreds and hundreds of Spanish speaking canvassers to help low propensity democratic voters to turn out and vote, and that could help Clinton over the finish line in Florida and elsewhere.’‘