Hillary Clinton Might Base Her Presidential Campaign Headquarters in Brooklyn
Hillary Clinton in her Wellesley days.
Or is that just Hillary in Williamsburg circa now? Hard to say.
At this point, there aren’t many things we can say for certain about the 2016 presidential campaign, other than that Obama won’t be running (he already ran two campaigns; he won both of them) and that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will. Oh, it’s not definite yet, but, like, neither is the fact that spring will come in six weeks time, you know? And yet, I feel like it’s pretty safe to say that spring will be coming and Hillary Rodham Clinton will be throwing her hat in the ring. But what’s all this got to do with you? Well, it seems more and more likely that Clinton will be basing her campaign headquarters in New York City—and all signs are pointing to her coming to Brooklyn.
Both NBC News and The Hill report that Clinton is almost certainly going to base her operations in the city rather than in Westchester, as was first speculated. The Hill reports: “An office in White Plains, near the Clintons’s Chappaqua, N.Y., home, has been all but ruled out,” even though “for months, some in the Clinton universe thought that setting up the campaign in or around White Plains, a middle-class enclave with dozens of office parks, would be a good home for the former secretary of State’s second presidential campaign.” Insiders from the Clinton team now say that Brooklyn is considered the best fit because it allows the campaign to project a more youthful, progressive viewpoint—something that would be a bit harder to do from the more stereotypically sedate image of a Westchester suburb. Although, I don’t know—hasn’t anyone from Clinton’s campaign read about “hipsturbia“? The suburbs are where all the hipsters are flocking en masse!
Anyway, while The Hill notes that “the would-be presidential campaign contender hasn’t yet reached a consensus on when exactly she’ll enter the race,” it also seems likely, according to insiders, that Clinton will “do a pre-launch in April to ‘get things going.'” All of which means that the candidate could be coming to Brooklyn pretty soon. And Clinton’s possible campaign headquarters isn’t the only big Brooklyn political news happening: This week, the head of the Democratic National Convention will decide where to hold the 2016 event, and Brooklyn is one of the three final candidates. (The other two are Columbus, Ohio and Philadelphia. So.)
All of which leads to the question: Why is Brooklyn suddenly so appealing to the Democratic Party? Well, a cynical person would point to the fact that New York City as a whole is home to not only many of the wealthiest people in the country, but also many of the most generous Democratic party donors, thus making it a natural place to fundraise. Beyond that, New York is not only a progressive-led, ultra-liberal city, but it is also an economically flourishing one (at least for its wealthiest residents!). It’s the kind of success story that Democratic politicians like to show is proof that progressive politics work, no matter the fact that, prior to 2013, the city was not governed by a Democratic mayor for 20 years. But whereas in years past, politicians with national aspirations might have stuck close to Manhattan for events and photo ops, Brooklyn is now the place to be. Beyond having recently landed on the national radar for, um, just being so damned cool, the borough is also a better place to be seen for politicians who, at the very least, want to pretend that they care about racial, cultural, and economic diversity. You just can’t get that in Manhattan the way you used to. So, get ready, Brooklyn: In the next couple of years, you’re bound to have plenty of opportunities to spot a presidential candidate in the wild. How exciting.
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