Bill and Chelsea Clinton will make their first appearance at a Hillary Clinton campaign event this year at the candidate’s big June 13 kickoff rally, where she will lay out a more detailed vision for the campaign.
Clinton launched her 2016 campaign on April 12, but she has held only small events in the weeks since. A bigger kickoff rally was planned for late May, then postponed until early June to give Clinton and her team more time to prepare, according to senior campaign officials who met reporters at the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters Thursday evening.
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At the June 13 rally, the location of which is being kept under wraps, Clinton will lay out how she currently views the country, where she think it needs to go and why she’s the person to lead it.
After the rally, Clinton will start doing larger events and roll out more detailed policy proposals on campaign trips, especially to the early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Iowa remains the campaign’s main focus. So far, Clinton has focused on small round-table events and has mostly spoken in broad brushstrokes about her vision.
Clinton’s husband and daughter have been out of sight on the campaign trail in the past month, though the former first couple stepped out together Monday at a Memorial Day parade in the upstate New York town where they live. Bill and Chelsea Clinton will likely continue to play a backstage role for several months after appearing at the kickoff rally.
Clinton is set to travel to New Mexico and Texas next week for fundraisers. The following week, she will return to the Washington, D.C. area. She’ll attend a fundraiser at the Bethesda, Maryland home of Susan Ness, a former FCC commissioner under Bill Clinton, according to an invitation obtained by msnbc.
The Clinton campaign says its goal is to raise $100 million this year in order to spend in Democratic primaries and caucuses. Officials rejected rumors that they hope to raise and spend $2 billion in both the primary and general campaigns (if Clinton wins the nomination), saying the total cost of the campaign would be closer to $1 billion.
Officials say the campaign has been alarmed by the pace of fundraising among some Republicans like Jeb Bush, who is running his own super PAC that can accept unlimited donations.
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The officials, who agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity, also said that Clinton’s image has not been damaged by questions over her use of a private email account or donations to her family’s charitable foundation.
Clinton has taken heat for so far holding only small, choreographed events that don’t allow much access from reporters or the public, but campaign officials noted that it’s early yet and said the Clinton herself wanted to start slow and ramp up over time. The pace of her campaigning will likely remain relatively light through the summer, and ramp up closer to the Iowa Caucuses early next year. She will continue to do round-tables, but start doing speeches and other events after the kick off rally.
Alex Seitz-Wald