Clinton presses into Arizona, Trump focuses on Florida

Published 10:18 am Wednesday, November 2, 2016

clinton.trumpFT. LAUDERDALE, Fla.  — Hillary Clinton is pressing into reliably Republican Arizona as she tries to steal a state away from Donald Trump. Her rival, reinvigorated by the FBI’s new email review, is laser-focused on Florida, a marquee battleground state he can’t win the White House without.

With less than a week until Election Day, both candidates are warning of dire consequences if the other is elected.

Trump says Clinton would be under investigation as president, sparking a “constitutional crisis,” though the FBI has declined to prosecute her for her handling of classified information. Clinton has vowed the FBI will have “no case” after reviewing new emails, but her campaign is nervous about tightening polls and ramping up attacks on Trump, hoping to scare away voters who could still be persuaded to back him.

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On her own Florida swing Tuesday, Clinton hammered Trump as dangerous and divisive, highlighting in particular his treatment of women.

“When I think about what we now know about Donald Trump and what he’s been doing for 30 years, he sure has spent a lot of time demeaning, degrading, insulting and assaulting women,” Clinton said.

Always important in presidential contests, Florida has emerged as this year’s most crucial state on the road to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. Trump can’t win without carrying Florida, meaning Clinton can deliver a knockout blow if she captures its 29 electoral votes.

Even with national polls narrowing, Clinton has several more paths to 270 than Trump. Her campaign is underscoring that political reality with a stop in Arizona Wednesday, a state that has voted for Republican presidential candidates all but once since 1952.

Her team also sees opportunities in North Carolina, a state that voted for president Barack Obama in 2008 before going Republican four years later.