Democrat Hillary Clinton cast herself as the heir to President Barack Obama's legacy at a get-out-the-vote rally Friday in Atlanta, declaring that she's the only candidate to ensure his achievements are secured.
“I do not think President Obama gets the credit he deserves for digging us out of this horrible economy,” she said to a crowd of more than 400 at Atlanta City Hall, earning the loudest applause of the rally.
The frontrunner hopes a strong showing at Saturday’s South Carolina primary and the votes that follow in Georgia and 10 other states on Tuesday will stymie Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ advances. And she’s long seen the diverse Southern states that cast ballots over the next week as a bastion of support.
The South Carolina vote is not only the first in the South, it’s also the first contest with a large chunk of black voters. More than half of the Democratic electorate in 2008 was black, mirroring the voting blocs in Georgia, Alabama and other Deep South states.
She stuck to her stump speech, promising new investment in education for low-income districts, a vigorous defense of Obama’s healthcare overhaul and a promise to tackle unequal wages for women.
“We need to tear down the economic barriers,” she said. “They are still too many and too high for folks who want to get ahead. We need to be sure we’re making investments here in Georgia and across America that will make us more prosperous and stronger.”
She assailed Sanders’ plan for free tuition for public college students, saying that Republican billionaire Donald Trump’s kids shouldn’t attend school on the taxpayers’ dime.
“I want to focus on middle class families, working families, and poor kids who need the help,” she said.
And she targeted Sanders for a 2005 vote that gave gun manufacturers immunity from prosecution.
"I'm going to take them on every single chance I get," she said of the gun lobby.
Several Georgia polls show she has a commanding edge over Sanders. A poll commissioned by WSB-TV this week showed her with 72 percent of voter support, while another poll by WABE 90.1 gave her a 2-1 advantage over her rival.
Clinton's event in Atlanta was initially supposed to be at Georgia State University's bustling student center, but it was shifted late Thursday night to a smaller and more tightly controlled venue at City Hall. Campus student leaders were peeved by the move.
The campaign said last-minute changes are typical, but it also suggested the Clinton camp was worried about interruptions to the event.
Clinton's last public visit to Georgia was hijacked by Black Lives Matter demonstrators who interrupted her speech at Clark Atlanta University for about 10 minutes. And a protester in Charleston made headlines this week by questioning a remark she made in a 1996 speech.
It also meant she would campaign on Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s home turf. The mayor is one of Clinton’s fiercest advocates in Georgia, and he’s repeatedly promised that Sanders “was not going to be the nominee.”
“There was never a doubt in my mind about who I was going to stand shoulder and shoulder with,” said Reed. “We know that all she has to do is win this election and she’s going to be an amazing president.”
As the rally finished, Reed stood beside Clinton and assured her: "Don't worry about Georgia."
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