MEMORANDUM FOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
From: Campaign Senior Staff
Date: July 25, 2015
RE:
Strategy memo for primary campaign

Over the last two weekends, the campaign’s senior staff, along with our
consultants, held two daylong strategy discussions to map out the direction for the
campaign over the coming months. The below memo summarizes the team’s ideas
for how best to achieve a set of strategic imperatives necessary to capture the
Democratic nomination and lay a strong foundation for the general election.
OBJECTIVE
Win the Democratic nomination in a fashion that propels our campaign into the
general election by strengthening core attributes of YOU as a person and as a
leader.
STRATEGIC IMPERATIVES
This memo lays out the team’s plan for achieving the following strategic
imperatives:
1. Win Iowa and NH
2. Build a March firewall in Super Tuesday states
a. Close the enthusiasm gap with young people, especially women
b. Preserve our lead with women, African-Americans, Latinos and APIs
3. Build a strong digital community
4. Build a Super Delegate firewall
5. Cast HRC as a tenacious fighter who will get things done for everyday
Americans
a. Defend against attacks
b. Assess and mitigate vulnerabilities
c. Counterattack opposition Republican candidates on issues of tru

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 1. Win Iowa and New Hampshire
IOWA
Vote Goal/Targeting Strategy
 We are currently organizing around a turnout projection of 120k, which is
approximately how many people turned out in the 2004 caucuses. At current
enthusiasm levels we anticipate a turnout of much less than 120k, but to
protect against a Sanders surge (or other unexpected turnout) we think this is
an appropriate number for planning purposes.
 It’s very important that we organize our goals around delegates instead of
around individual turnout since delegates are what the media will report on
election night and they are all that matter for the nominating process.
Delegates are currently being assigned to precincts by the state party, so we
do not currently have precise goals, but we anticipate having them within the
next few weeks. We will have specific precinct-level turnout targets based
on how to most efficiently win the most delegates.
CANDIDATE EVENTS
 Our Priority Event formats:
→
→
→
→

Q&A: Iowa City was well received and great persuasion format
Day in the Life: Message focused and supports rural coverage
House Parties: 80-100 people focused on org building and persuasion
Org-build/Volunteer Events: Rewarding and energizing regional
volunteers
→ Policy Rollouts/Message Events: In particular, we will roll out a “rural
agenda.”
 Persuasion events will focus on, in addition to population centers, persuasion
clusters in mostly “suburban” and “exurban” areas such as:
o
o
o
o

West Des Moines
Ames
Indianola
Grinnell

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  Mobilization events will be for generating early excitement and preparing
for GOTC in places such as:
o Polk County
o Linn County
o Black Hawk County
o Scott County
SURROGATE STRATEGY
 We will prioritize surrogate activity that evokes rural values and speaks to
targeted constituencies. Event types include:
o
o
o
o
o

Family Restaurants
Office Visits
Rural county party events
Rural county fairs
Constituency “Summits”

EARNED MEDIA
 In addition to earned media from candidate travel, we will seek earned
media opportunities that do not involve candidate travel:
o Use event attendees to pitch localized stories in key markets
o Radio booking
o Constituency summits and leadership in targeted markets

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 NEW HAMPSHIRE
 With current enthusiasm numbers we anticipate turnout to be anywhere
between 100k and 220k. Currently we’re planning around 150k. Unlike
Iowa, right now a dramatic increase in turnout will have less impact on the
outcome.
 We anticipate that roughly 30% of the electorate will be independents, a
universe where Sanders performs better than among Democrats. We still see
a gender gap with Independent women, but it is smaller than with
Democratic women. Independent men are our most challenging universe.
 We are currently organizing around a goal of 52 % of the vote, but the actual
outcome is much more likely to be under 50 %. This will change completely
should O’Malley or another candidate gain traction, or Biden enters the race.
Candidate Events: Priority event formats include:









Town Halls
Retail stops/OTRs
Democratic party functions
Campaign organizing events
Major policy speeches
Campaign-sponsored roundtables
Campaign-sponsored rallies
Debates and forums hosted by outside organizations

Surrogate Events: Priority surrogate types:





Pro Clinton Messengers: Speak on why HRC is best candidate
Contrast Messengers: Draw strong contrast to opponents
Family Members: Speak personally about HRC
Constituency Validators & Staff: Validate support for key constituency
groups

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 EARNED MEDIA STRATEGY
 Key targeted regions: Hillsborough, Merrimack, and Rockingham counties
followed by Strafford, Cheshire and Grafton Counties. These are home to
the largest media outlets, and 17,500 of our soft support targets out of a total
of nearly 30,000.
 To earn media coverage in the Concord Monitor, Union Leader, Boston
Globe, Portsmouth Herald, and Nashua Telegraph, we will be more
aggressive in pitching them surrogates, organizing activity, and hyperlocalizing national announcements for their communities.
 NH’s dwindling media landscape doesn’t offer as many opportunities as we
would like. To increase our earned media presence we will pursue coverage
in all outlets, no matter how small or remote. We’ll look for opportunities to
earn coverage through letters to the editor, local testimonials and other
strategies designed to fit smaller outlets.
 The television bleed from the Portland, Burlington, and Boston into N.H. is
significant. With a focus on Burlington and Boston TV (because they reach
more targeted geographic areas), ahead of major message events we will
identify a local elected official who can be pitched for a stand up interview
echoing the message out of a major policy address or other message event.

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 II.

BUILD A MARCH FIREWALL

 Looking beyond the early-voting states, the demographics in the Super
Tuesday states reinforce the importance of our coalition’s outreach in
establishing a March firewall:
o Ten contests have a Democratic electorate where at least 30% of the
vote are non-white voters.
o Seven states have an electorate where at least 40% of the vote are
non-white voters.
o Five states have an electorate where at least 50% of the vote are nonwhite.
o American Samoa, Alabama, Georgia and Texas have a Democratic
electorate of at least 60% nonwhite voters.
 We are building an internal infrastructure to preserve our advantage with
African-Americans, Latinos and Asian and Pacific Islander voters:
o We have hired coalition outreach directors that are finalizing coalition
outreach plans and will lead working groups within our campaign
team to drive and execute those plans.
o The working groups will integrate all departments — including
Communications, Paid Media, Policy, and Digital — into a
coordinated plan to reach out to our target constituencies.
o Plans will include: Grassroots and grasstops list building, organizing
events, targeted messaging events, digital programs, earned media
strategy, radio etc.
 For each of these key constituencies, we need to pursue specific approaches
to consolidate our support:
WOMEN: Our campaign’s level of discipline could right now be an
impediment to young women’s enthusiasm. We need to be more
deliberate about seeking to stoke enthusiasm among women—
especially young women. This will include using digital-based
opportunities to “surprise and delight” young, female audiences with
content that provides a more personalized window into HRC. This
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 could include unscripted moments on the road. We’re building plans
to use women electeds more effectively, particularly women Senators
and the leadership of the House Democratic Women’s Caucus who
have endorsed. We’ll use the fall to build support on campuses,
particularly around the issues of college affordability, climate and
women’s reproductive health. We should also lean heavier into the
women lane by putting more emphasis on issues of pay equity, family
leave, and child care with a strong contrast to Republican candidates.
AFRICAN AMERICAN: We cannot just think of this community in
the aftermath of tragic events such as the Charleston shooting or
instances of police brutality. Our outreach should be more regular and
frequent. We should put HRC in front of this group more often—for
instance, by building more Af-Am-related events during our
fundraising trips, especially events featuring women. Faith especially
is a good connector in this community. We are planning activities
around the 50th anniversary of Voting Rights Act, such as participating
in a “Day of Action.” We will prioritize more time in and on AfricanAmerican media and utilize African-American radio more to promote
our general policy announcements, and also make our policy experts
available to amplify rollouts to Af-Am media outlets. We are also
exploring ways to engage more with “black Twitter.”
HISPANIC: There is some disappointment in this community
towards Obama and a curiosity about whether HRC will be any
different. In our outreach here, it is important to prioritize visuals
showing HRC among or with Latino families. Latino voters are heavy
users of social media, so we will place a particular emphasis on
reaching those voters through social media strategies. We will also
seek to reach these voters by looking into paid digital ads on nationof-origin websites where many Spanish-speaking households get their
news.

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  Schedule of organizing activities in March Contest states through the end of
2015:
o JULY
 Ballot Access Petition Drives (IN, VA & VT)
 Grassroots Weekend of Action
 Coalition earned media plan drafted
 Finalize congressional engagement plan around August recess
o AUGUST
 Path to Victory plans drafted for March 15th contests
 Establish grassroots “kitchen cabinets”
 Voting Rights Anniversary Amplification including voter
registration drives (targeted areas)
 19th Anniversary Amendment Amplification events
 Campus organizing programs launched
o SEPTEMBER
 Ballot Access Petition Drives (MA, IL & AL)
 Labor Day events community canvassing
 Caucus Organizing meetings
 Grassroots Weekend of Action
o OCTOBER
 Regional caucus coordinators trainings
 Path to Victory plans drafted for Tier 2 caucus states
 Grassroots Weekend of Action
 National House Party Day
o NOVEMBER
 Regional grassroots coordinator organizing summits
 Grassroots Weekend of Action
 Voter registration drives (targeted areas)
o DECEMBER
 50% caucus coordinators recruited
 Volunteer Appreciation month

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  Early Vote/GOTV plans drafted
 GOTC plans drafted
III.

Build our Digital Community

 To date, we have established presences on the following digital platforms:
PLATFORM
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Medium
Spotify
Periscope
SMS
Email

FOLLOWING
1M Followers
3.3M Followers
184K Followers
85K Followers
4400 Followers
71K Followers
5K Followers
1K Viewers
15K Subscribers
1.9M Subscribers

 We experienced the fastest audience growth through SMS that our vendor
has ever seen – reaching over 10,000 on launch day.
 Our Pinterest page grew in followers faster than the White House’s when
they launched.
 We will continue to grow our followings on these platforms, as well as
launch our presence on additional ones, such as Snapchat and WhatsApp in
the coming weeks.
 Even subtracting the effect of the acquisition of the Ready for Hillary list,
our campaign’s email list growth is outpacing that of both Obama 2008 and
Clinton 2008 at this point in the election cycle:

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 o “Dinner with Hillary” raised $257k and spurred 203k sign ups,
including 91k new addresses.
o Birthday cards drove 82k sign ups, 14k new addresses and raised
$39k.

 Paid online ads continue to be the highest-yield method for achieving signups:

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  In the coming weeks and months we will be launching two new campaigns:
o The first will focus on fundraising and specifically converting nondonors to donors as well as increasing the gift amount of current
supporters through a membership card drive.
o The second is launching a new video series where HRC will have
conversations with a variety of people ranging from everyday
Americans to celebrities. This will allow us the opportunity to create
moments where HRC can explain her policy priorities but also allow
us to show HRC in a more conversational settings that will allow us to
show a more personal side to her - which we have seen our email list
and our social followings react very positively to.

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 IV.

BUILD A SUPERDELEGATE FIREWALL

Below is a snapshot of the overall superdelegate universe, and the number of
endorsements earned so far:

Below is a synopsis of how we will pursue endorsements from the groups of
uncommitted superdelegates:
 Governors: The campaign is working with Governor Raimondo and
Governor McAuliffe to whip the remaining private endorsed or nonendorsed Democratic Governors next week at the National Governors
Association Conference.
 Senators: Of the 8 U.S. Senators who haven't expressed their support for
HRC, privately or publicly, we will rely on our strongest supporters to target
non-endorsed Senators.
 House Members: For the House Members who haven't told us who are nonendorsers or Members who are private endorsers we are going to enlist our
public supporters in the Women's Caucus to assign Members to whip them.
Additionally, we will reach out to our strongest supporters and have them
begin to contact non-endorsers.

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  Party Leaders: There are 21 total distinguished party leaders, of which
three have been tentatively selected as “whips” – Ed Rendell, Howard Dean,
and Walter Mondale. The outreach process for each individual whip will
primarily be guided by the relationships they each have with the eighteen
other distinguished party leaders.
 Party Chairs: Using the Association of State Democratic Chairs (“ASDC”),
the campaign will appoint Party Chairs in leadership at the Association.
Many of these individuals reached out to other party chairs to get elected to
their positions.
 DNC Members: An initial kitchen cabinet of 21 members has been
assembled. These members have agreed to be part of the campaign’s
member-to-member outreach program to contact uncommitted DNC
members. We’re also using the summer meeting of the DNC in Minneapolis
to get commitments in advance of HRC’s reception for committed delegates.

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 V.

Defend against attacks/Plan Around Vulnerabilities

a. HRC DEFENSE
We are currently facing a barrage of attacks aimed squarely at undermining the
most important HRC attributes for voters. Our opponents’ goals are to frame her as
untrustworthy, lacking an effective record and out of touch with everyday
Americans. In order to respond to the volume of attacks, we will use the
campaign’s resources and voice as well as engage supporters to defend HRC’s
record and show Republican hypocrisy and vulnerability.
 Generate Enthusiasm with Supporters by Enlisting Their Help:
o Posting and sharing more fact checks/pushback on The Briefing and
via social media to give supporters a place to help push back on
attacks.
o Build more outrage around the volume of attacks and the messengers,
including outrage against specific examples of unfair media coverage.
 Building an Army of Defenders:
o Trainings with top surrogates to go through pushback, key points on
HRC’s record and how to pivot attacks to the Republicans.
o Regular calls and emails to share updated points and facts.
With Respect to Specific Attacks:
 ATTACK: Transparency/Playing by Their Own Rules: These attacks include
emails, Clinton Foundation donors, tax and other records.
o As with email Q&A, post an exhaustive Q&A and/or fact checks on
other transparency issues
o Release 2014 taxes, along with previous years—touting
unprecedented transparency on records amongst 2016 candidates.
o Early release of health records
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 o Develop plans using outside voices, groups and the campaign to
undermine and destroy the credibility of Gowdy’s Benghazi
investigation before HRC’s appearance in October. Tactics can include
briefing editors on the facts, calculator on time and money spent,
reports from outside groups, opeds and blanketing of TV with
surrogates.
 ATTACK: Ineffective/No Record of Accomplishments: These attacks
include criticism of HRC’s record at State, doubts cast on her ability to get
anything done or pass legislation in the Senate.
o We have already posted her record of accomplishments at State as
well as GOP praise on The Briefing and shared with surrogates. Will
continue to update and provide resources on key areas as HRC does
policy speeches to demonstrate a long record of work on each issue.
o Develop an A-list surrogate team of former diplomats, military
leaders, and foreign policy experts to tell HRC’s story.
o Use Iran as a case study for both her accomplishments and the
political process story on our turning their attack into a positive. This
could include an oped on the case for Iran, stories around how she
started this whole process, activating key diplomatic voices on TV and
in other outlets to show her work.
o Get out of the defensive crouch, and tell the real story of the
accomplishments of the Clinton Foundation. Use the occasion of
September CGI and HRC’s visit to share stories, accomplishments,
and push out voices who have experienced the work on the ground.
 ATTACK: Wealth/Pay-to-Play: Continue to thoroughly debunk the pay-toplay stories through fact-checking on the Briefing and through work of CTR
and other allies. These attacks are based on alleged attempts to enrich the
family’s income via Clinton Foundation, State Department position, etc.
o Continue to use HRC’s bio and story to emphasize her life-long work
as a tenacious fighter for children and families.

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 o Encourage further fact-checks and selectively highlight bad reporting
on some of these topics, where appropriate.
b. COUNTER-ATTACK OPPOSITION REPUBLICAN
CANDIDATES ON ISSUES OF TRUST
In addition to defending HRC’s record, we will also highlight contrasts with the
GOP, both individually and as a group. One dynamic in the race right now that we
need to fix is our lack of a clear “enemy.” In 2008 the party framed its message
around the failed policies of George W. Bush. In 2015, the Republicans are running
against Barack Obama. Bernie Sanders, for his part, is vilifying the Wall Street
banks and the billionaire class. We need to be more aggressive about going on
offense against the Republican candidates for president in order to get Democratic
primary voters excited and motivated.
 Muddy the Waters on GOP Candidates: Reframe the trust issue around
the question of whether you can trust the Republicans to do the bidding of
their billionaire super-Pac donors and the special interests. Work with CTR
and DNC to publicize specific GOP candidate vulnerabilities on issues of
transparency, ethics, and donor favoritism. Work with MMFA to highlight
examples of when the press won’t cover the same issues with Republicans
 Attack the Messengers: One of our major efforts throughout the next few
months will be elevating the awareness of the super PACs attacking HRC.
From highlighting potential illegal coordination to noting the extreme views
of their donors, we will make them the villains and give people an
opportunity to have someone to go after. We will also highlight Citizens
United as a case about HRC.
 Leverage Gaffes and Other News Hooks: We will capitalize on mistakes,
gaffes or GOP comments and actions that can help demonstrate why they’re
out of date and out of touch. As we did with McConnell’s gender card
comment or Walker’s latest anti-choice action, we will look for opportunities
to have HRC or the campaign respond and our supporters and surrogates
engage to keep an issue in the news. Where possible, we will also try to
show how the rest of the field agrees.

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  GOP Debate Response: We will use the debates to engage supporters and
push our message that the whole GOP field is in lockstep in being wrong on
what everyday Americans need.
 Accompany our Policy Rollouts with GOP Contrast: With each policy
rollout, we will also share the GOP record and plans, to encourage a contrast
between what HRC and the Republican field believe.
We discussed and concluded that during this phase we would avoid engaging our
Democratic opponents. We do not want to risk our high favorable numbers with
Democrats by going on offense directly on our primary challengers. Although the
possibility remains to at some point begin criticizing some of Sanders’ ideas as
unrealistic or unworkable, for now, we will let our outside allies do the important
work of putting our fellow Democrats on the defensive.
We are attaching the Home Base Message Framework memo that served as a
jumping off point for these discussions.
We also have some updated data from Oren that we will send you to supplement
this memo in the next few days.

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