Hillary Clinton hasn’t even officially announced that she’s running for president in 2016 — and she’s already winning. In November, Clinton was officially “the most dominant front-runner at this stage of a Presidential contest in the Party’s modern history" and just last week, a new set of polls showed her beating any Republican challenger in three key battleground states.
So, should we start preparing for a landslide? Lots can happen between now and November 2016, of course, and Hillary will have her challenges. For a successful run, she’ll have to court the middle and fight off heat from the left at the same time — but we doubt that will faze her much, because, well, nothing else seems to.
Here are four reasons you might want to start planning your historic ‘16 election-night party now — because it very well might turn out to be the first time we’ll see a woman take the proverbial POTUS reins (as we drunkenly storm the streets exclaiming things and waving embarrassing homemade posters).
She still has no strong primary challenger:
The last time Hillary made a go for President, she was caught in a marathon primary fight, battling Barack Obama all the way until June of 2008 — just months before the election.
This time, though, she's returning with a more impressive resume, including her years as a very popular Secretary of State. As of now, she really has no credible Democratic challenger to contend with.
The two obvious choices — VP Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren — have not only said they're not running; it looks like they really mean it. Neither has started to take the fundraising or staffing steps they'd need to mount a real campaign.
She's hugely popular among the young:
A recent Fusion poll surveyed a thousand millennials between the ages of 18 and 34 and found that 55% of them would vote for Hillary over Mitt Romney — who, at the time, was the most talked-about GOP candidate (he's since dropped out). More than half (57%) of the Democrats polled are gunning for Clinton, compared with 10% for Vice President Joe Biden (for his part, Obama says he “loves ‘em both”). Of the Dems surveyed, 10% said they’d opt for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. She's trending:
Google Trends shows a growing interest in the former secretary of state. There’s been an uptick of Hillary-centered “interest over time,” indicating that people are searching for her, reading about her, and, arguably, getting “ready for Hillary” (at least, we hope so). She’s rounding up an all-star team: Though Clinton has been criticized for reportedly only hiring white dudes for her 2016 team-in-waiting, the people she's bringing on are powerful additions who are sure to help her formulate a stellar run. According to leaks, she’s adding: Joel Benenson (a strategist who played a significant role in Barack Obama’s two runs) as her chief strategist and pollster; John Podesta as her campaign chairman (he’s the standing Counselor to the president); Robby Mook as her campaign manager (Mook has managed a number of winning Dem campaigns); and Jim Margolis (a former top advisor to President Obama) as her media adviser. Clinton still has women in her inner circle, though — ex-aide Huma Abedin is still an advisor, and Cheryl Mills, her former chief of staff at the State Department, is “expected to be involved on some level.” Clinton also has a solid past track record of hiring women and minorities, so it would be surprising if she didn’t bring more of them onboard down the road.
A recent Fusion poll surveyed a thousand millennials between the ages of 18 and 34 and found that 55% of them would vote for Hillary over Mitt Romney — who, at the time, was the most talked-about GOP candidate (he's since dropped out). More than half (57%) of the Democrats polled are gunning for Clinton, compared with 10% for Vice President Joe Biden (for his part, Obama says he “loves ‘em both”). Of the Dems surveyed, 10% said they’d opt for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. She's trending:
Google Trends shows a growing interest in the former secretary of state. There’s been an uptick of Hillary-centered “interest over time,” indicating that people are searching for her, reading about her, and, arguably, getting “ready for Hillary” (at least, we hope so). She’s rounding up an all-star team: Though Clinton has been criticized for reportedly only hiring white dudes for her 2016 team-in-waiting, the people she's bringing on are powerful additions who are sure to help her formulate a stellar run. According to leaks, she’s adding: Joel Benenson (a strategist who played a significant role in Barack Obama’s two runs) as her chief strategist and pollster; John Podesta as her campaign chairman (he’s the standing Counselor to the president); Robby Mook as her campaign manager (Mook has managed a number of winning Dem campaigns); and Jim Margolis (a former top advisor to President Obama) as her media adviser. Clinton still has women in her inner circle, though — ex-aide Huma Abedin is still an advisor, and Cheryl Mills, her former chief of staff at the State Department, is “expected to be involved on some level.” Clinton also has a solid past track record of hiring women and minorities, so it would be surprising if she didn’t bring more of them onboard down the road.