Hillary Clinton's Behind-the-Scenes 2018 Plans
She knows she's radioactive, so she's keeping a low profile. But don't mistake that for sitting out of 2018 entirely.
It's the question political observers have been asking for months since her shocking loss to Donald Trump: what does Hillary Clinton's political future hold?
A new report from the Washington Post pulls the curtain back a bit on the two-time failed presidential candidate's plans for the 2018 midterm elections. Unsurprisingly, those plans include doing her best to stay out of the limelight and helping Clinton loyalists.
Her emerging 2018 strategy, according to more than a dozen friends and advisers familiar with her plans, is to leverage the star power she retains in some Democratic circles on behalf of select candidates while remaining sufficiently below the radar to avoid becoming a useful target for Republicans seeking to rile up their base.
Most likely, they said, Clinton will attempt to help Democratic candidates who have a history of supporting her and her family, and expending her political capital in a number of the 23 congressional districts she won in 2016 but are now held by a Republican. Lending a hand to Democrats organizing at a grass-roots level is a priority, they added.
According to friends and allies, Clinton knows how radioactive she is. Her polling, more than a year after her November 2016 defeat, remains abysmal. Just 36 percent of Americans view her favorably, while 61 percent said they view her unfavorably. That is an all-time low for Clinton, according to Gallup.
Clinton has been hinting for months that she would be involved in 2018 in some capacity, but today's report sheds more light on specifics.
And Democrats have been asked repeatedly about Clinton's involvement in future races. After Clinton announced she was forming what she described on the campaign trail as a "dark money" group to help Democrats, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was asked if Clinton was the best messenger for Democrats in 2018.
"There are going to be all kinds of messengers," Pelosi said. "With our great diversity, some people will be more helpful some places than others."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but then again, Clinton has tried and failed twice to unite Democrats and bring a winning campaign over the finish line. Still, that doesn't seem to be stopping the 70-year-old.
"Clinton friends expect that she will be an influential figure in 2020," the Post's report said. Because of course.