By Cleveland Urban News.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) /(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Hillary Clinton (pictured) spoke to several hundred supporters Thursday morning, August 27, at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, her first official campaign stop to the majority Black major American city and the pivotal state of Ohio since she announced her candidacy for president in April.
Afterwards her she spearheaded a campaign meeting centered around voter registration, and later that day attended a $2,700 a person fundraiser at the Cleveland home of a local supporter.
Her visit to the controversial Black city that will host the National Republican Convention in 2016 was timely, and comes a day after the 95th anniversary, specifically on August 26, of the ratification that day in 1920 of the 19th amendment, which gave women in America the right to vote.
The front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, Clinton talked about an array of issues, from abortion, to women's rights, to voter suppression, poverty and gun control. And she took pot shots at the GOP presidential candidates, including Donald Trump, and John Kasich, Ohio's popular two- term governor whose candidacy for president has, no doubt, heightened his political persona.
Clinton linked the stance by Republicans on women's healthcare issues as commensurate to terrorism, and said that all of them are out of touch with the American people, women in particular.
The former first lady and secretary of state during President Obama's first term in office said that the Republican Party wants to suppress the vote, mainly against "the poor, and minorities."
Clinton also called for stricter gun control laws in the aftermath of the shooting deaths last week of two television journalists in Roanoke, Virginia.
11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (pictured) ,a Warrensville Heights Democrat whose largely Black congressional district includes Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs, was among those that spoke before Clinton took to the stage, as were former Ohio governor Ted Strickland, and former state senator Nina Turner, a Cleveland Democrat and the director of political engagement for the Ohio Democratic Party.
Fudge said that the media were seeking to mislead the country over Clinton's email controversy, which has overshadowed her campaign in recent months, and that there are more pertinent matters at stake.
"Don’t just listen to the talking heads," said Fudge, who, as the then mayor of Warrensville Heights, a majority Black Cleveland suburb, also endorsed Clinton, then a New York senator, for her failed bid for president in 2008."They are selling an agenda that is not our agenda."
The congresswoman, who is Black and has led the 11th congressional district since 2008, said that Clinton is the best candidate for president among both the Democratic and Republican hopefuls.
Former governor Strickland, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Rob Portman that lost reelection in 2010 to governor Kasich, said that Ohio sets the pace for presidential elections, and that Ohioans need Clinton in the White House in 2016.
Then president John F. Kennedy was the last Democrat to lose the swing state of Ohio and go on to win the White House, and that was in 1960, nearly 55 years ago. And in contrast, no Republican of remembrance has accomplished such a feat.
Clinton all but endorsed Strickland, and said that nobody cares more deeply and profoundly about what happens to Ohioans than Strickland, who leads Portman in the polls and has already received the public endorsement of former president Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton's husband.
A new Quinnipiac poll has Strickland leading Portman in Ohio, 44 percent to 41 percent, and nationally by 9 percentage points, 48 percent to 39 percent.
