NEWS

Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama hit campaign trail together for the first time

Heidi M. Przybyla
USA TODAY

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton shared a stage Thursday for the first time during the 2016 campaign, with the first lady acknowledging the unusual step she’s taking in actively working to elect her husband’s 2008 primary adversary.

Hillary Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama take the stage at a rally at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Oct. 27, 2016.

“This is truly an unprecedented election, and that’s why I’m out here,” Obama told an estimated crowd of 11,000 at a rally at Wake Forest University.

“The stakes in this election could not be more clear,” said Obama, described by the Clinton campaign as their “not-so-secret weapon.”

“This is not about Republicans versus Democrats. None of that matters this time,” the first lady told supporters. “No, no, no, this election is about something much bigger. It’s about who will shape our children and the country we lead.”

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The rally was meant to encourage early voting in North Carolina. With newer battlegrounds like Virginia and Colorado now tilting strongly in Clinton’s favor, North Carolina has become a more reliable harbinger of the election outcome. It’s a state that Barack Obama won in 2008 but lost four years later to Republican Mitt Romney.

Without mentioning the name of Clinton’s Republican competitor, Donald Trump, Mrs. Obama drew a sharp contrast Thursday between the two, alternating between vignettes of Clinton’s biography, including her work with children, and Trump’s rhetoric.

“We want a president who takes this job seriously and who has the temper and maturity to do it well,” Obama said, “someone who’s steady, someone we can trust with the nuclear codes.”

In Clinton, “We have never had a more qualified and prepared candidate for president,” the first lady said, citing her work as a lawyer, secretary of State and senator. “And yes, she happens to be a woman,” she added, to a roar of applause.

Early in her speech, Obama also seemed to want to clear up any lingering doubts about tensions between the onetime rival families. “If people are wondering, yes, Hillary Clinton is my friend,” she said, noting that the Clintons were “embracing and supportive” from the day President Obama took office.

First lady Michelle Obama speaks at a rally for Hillary Clinton in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Oct. 27, 2016, as the Democratic presidential nominee looks on.

Speaking before the first lady, Clinton praised the first lady, saying she "reminds us to work hard, stay true to our values, be good to one another and never, ever stop fighting for what we believe in.”

“Is there anyone more inspiring than Michelle Obama?” Clinton asked the crowd.

Throughout her eight years in the White House, Michelle Obama has largely avoided the political fray as she’s maintained a portfolio of public interest causes, including nutrition and child welfare, characteristic of past first ladies.

That, combined with her repeated insistence that she has no political ambitions of her own, has given her a less partisan cast and unique ability to connect with voters on the stump. Polls show her approval ratings are higher than her husband’s.

It was her July speech at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia that established her as one of the party's most effective surrogates, and Clinton often repeats Mrs. Obama's refrain in responding to Donald Trump’s criticisms: “When they go low, we go high."

During her North Carolina speech Thursday, the first lady sought to fire up Democratic voters in attendance by warning them that their opponents were trying to dissuade them from voting at all.

“That’s the strategy, to make this election so dirty and ugly that we don’t want any part of it,” said Obama. “They are trying to get you to stay home. They are trying to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter, that the outcome has already been determined,” she said.

Mrs. Obama then made a more personal appeal to women and minorities in the audience by reaching back to the fight for voting rights by their ancestors.

“They endured beatings and jail time, they sacrificed their lives for those rights,” she said.

“Casting our vote is the ultimate way we go high,” she added.

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