Hillary Clinton spent millions of dollars to attract voters in Chicago and New Orleans — despite having their respective states locked up — to keep Donald Trump from winning the popular vote, according to Politico.
Politico’s Edward-Isaac Dovere published a lengthy piece on Wednesday titled, “How Clinton lost Michigan – and blew the election,” that details how the Clinton campaign ignored the crucial battleground state of Michigan and focused on states that didn’t have a chance of impacting the Electoral College over fears that Trump would win the popular vote while losing the electoral vote — the very opposite of the scenario that played out in November.
Clinton won the popular vote by 2.8 million votes but lost the presidency, with Trump winning the Electoral College. Dovere, citing a dozen officials working for Clinton’s campaign, reported that an “ongoing fight about campaign tactics, an inability to get top leadership to change course” essentially cost her the presidency.
Dovere reports that the Clinton campaign neglected the state of Michigan, which went to Trump, and even turned away potential supporters who were looking for lawn signs and literature.
The article details how DNC chair Donna Brazile commanded the redirection of $5 million toward ads aimed at increasing minority voter turnout based on “fear that Trump would win the popular vote while losing the electoral vote.”
According to Dovere, the money was “dumped into Chicago and New Orleans, far from anywhere that would have made a difference in the election.”
Trump’s last stop of the campaign was a rally in Michigan, which may or may not have helped him win the state — and the election. Meanwhile, Louisiana predictably went to Trump and Illinois predictably went to Clinton, regardless of the extra money spent to get voters to turn out in those states’ inner-cities.