With the election one day away, CommonSpace looks at the last minute support from Scotland that has gone towards the Clinton camp
AS the US election night approaches, the Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican nominee Donald J Trump are reportedly drawing closer in the polls.
With some numbers at national and state level showing “the Donald” narrowing the gap among independent voters and a handful of key states, CommonSpace looks at the role Scottish groups and campaigners have had in increasing support for the Democratic nominee.
Last week several politicians from Scottish Labour and the Liberal Democrats gathered outside the Parliament to show their support for Clinton, organised by Scotland for Hillary the group has travelled to the US to take part in the final hours of campaigning. The result of the election will be declared in the early hours of Wednesday [9 October] morning.
Who are they?
.@ScotlandForHRC are officially off to help elect @HillaryClinton the next President of the USA pic.twitter.com/WORPANMIoK
— Eva Murray (@EvaCMurray) November 5, 2016
The two main individuals organising Scotland for Hillary are Eva Murray, the digital assistant for Anas Sarwar, and Eunis Jassemi, who is a parliamentary researcher for the Scottish Labour Party. Nearing the end of last week both headed over to the US to follow and campaign for Clinton.
Battling in the swing states:
The county we're in, in Florida just got described as "The swingy-est part of the swing state" on CNN. Helping turn that purple, blue!
— Eva Murray (@EvaCMurray) November 7, 2016
Florida is a key swing state that both Clinton and Trump have been going for in order to gain the necessary amount of electoral college votes. Before touching down in New York, Scotland for Hillary went to Florida to knock on doors.
Holyrood approval:
Huge thank you to all the MSPs who turned out for our photocall today pic.twitter.com/5s16aXGWib
— Scotland for Hillary (@ScotlandForHRC) November 3, 2016
Several MSPs from Scottish Labour and the Liberal Democrats gathered for a photocall, last week in front of Holyrood, to signify their support for the campaign before it set off to America, including Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton.
Getting the vote out:
Earlier on today. Obama landing in Orlando #Obama #imwithher pic.twitter.com/Tc6SdVPoZt
— Eunis Jassemi (@Eunis_Jassemi) November 7, 2016
Orlando is known in the US as swing city and with a high proportion of latino voters could help Clinton to the White House, especially given Trump’s declared views on immigration and race. However, the Clinton camp have already expressed concerns over the dropping of voter turnout in general and especially among ethnic minority voters unenthused by either candidate, a factor which could be crucial.
Despite backing current US President Barack Obama both in 2008 and 2012, Floridian voters have picked Republican presidential candidates in six out of the last ten elections. On top of that, in 2012 it was the only state to be decided by less than 1 per cent of the vote, meaning Republicans believe this is a swing state they can win.
Backing from Sturgeon:
The First Minister has also taken to social media to formally declare her support for Clinton on the hashtag #ImWithHer. However, some of the reactions to this support were less than amicable.
With the only Scottish politician to make any supportive noises (but not all-out backing) for Trump being UKIP MEP David Coburn, social media comments like these are the main manifestation of Trump support, or at least mutual hostility to both candidates, in Scotland.
Picture courtesy of SC4HRC
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