WASHINGTON — Union members broke into cheers when Hillary Rodham Clinton said she supported their efforts to create a $15-an-hour national minimum wage. ADVERTISING WASHINGTON — Union members broke into cheers when Hillary Rodham Clinton said she supported their efforts
WASHINGTON — Union members broke into cheers when Hillary Rodham Clinton said she supported their efforts to create a $15-an-hour national minimum wage.
“Thank you for giving me this chance to tell you all how much I support your movement,” she told a conference organized by the Service Employees International Union. “I want to fight with you every day.”
Clinton’s words last weekend weren’t quite the endorsement they may have seemed. The next day, her campaign clarified her remarks, saying while Clinton supported the general push for higher wages, she wasn’t backing the more contentious $15 hourly minimum.
In the eight weeks since she announced her presidential bid, Clinton has moved cautiously to the left. She’s wooing the liberal wing of her party with strong stances on issues like immigration, where there’s broad national support for the Democratic position.
But at the same time, Clinton is staying silent or speaking with care on more controversial topics, as she did on the minimum wage. The carefully crafted policy two-step reflects a strategic decision by her campaign to motivate Democratic activists skeptical of her commitment to their cause, without alienating more moderate voters open to her candidacy.
Last week, she pushed for a radical revamp of voting laws, including automatically registering people when they turned 18, prompting a backlash from potential Republican rivals and cheers from Democratic advocates. But she took no stance as Congress debated and approved sweeping changes to the nation’s surveillance laws enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, an issue where her party and the public are divided.
That kind of cherry-picking will become harder for Clinton in the coming months as she moves into a new phase of her presidential campaign, beginning with a major rally in New York City on Saturday.
In her address, Clinton will lay out her vision for her presidency, arguing that prosperity cannot be just for CEOs and hedge-fund managers but must include ordinary Americans. “It is your time,” Clinton will say, according to aides who described the speech.
Her campaign intends to begin rolling out specific policy positions in coming weeks, a process that will detail her views on issues such as Wall Street regulation, trade, jobs and college affordability.
“Thus far, she’s been cautiously treading this interesting and narrow piece of ground that appeals to the broader party and the base,” said Jared Bernstein, a former economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden and a senior fellow with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He added: “We’ll have to see what kind of sounds she makes when she moves outside that intersection patch.”
