--- title: How Hillary Clinton is Trying to Win Over Liberal Critics description: Hillary Clinton hit the major populist talking points on her campaign this week as she seeks to reaffirm her liberal credentials. canonical: https://time.com/3826985/hillary-clinton-2016-iowa-liberals/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-17T20:46:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:31.875Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Hillary Clinton is Trying to Win Over Liberal Critics og:description: She's hitting all the notes in the populist songbook. og:url: https://time.com/3826985/hillary-clinton-2016-iowa-liberals/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9faec47fe9ec2f9/6987ebc02dce0177349e160b/hillary-clinton-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Hillary Rodham Clinton at a campaign event at the Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa, on Apr. 14, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Hillary Clinton is Trying to Win Over Liberal Critics twitter:description: She's hitting all the notes in the populist songbook. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9faec47fe9ec2f9/6987ebc02dce0177349e160b/hillary-clinton-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Hillary Clinton is Trying to Win Over Liberal Critics > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Hillary Clinton's Top 10 Political Moments [Watch (HLS stream): Hillary Clinton's Top 10 Political Moments](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/L3I0gpwt.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2015-04-09. Watch the top 10 moments from Hillary Clinton's career in politics._ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Apr 17, 2015 8:46 PM UTC  Hillary Rodham Clinton at a campaign event at the Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa, on Apr. 14, 2015. Hillary Rodham Clinton at a campaign event at the Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa, on Apr. 14, 2015. Michael B. Thomas—AFP/Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Apr 17, 2015 8:46 PM UTC During her first bid for president, Hillary Clinton was attacked for supporting the Iraq War and being too cozy with Wall Street. She flew in a helicopter between events in Iowa and mostly appeared at massive rallies, where her distance from voters was in plain sight. And in June 2008, the nomination went to then-Sen. Barack Obama, a candidate viewed by many Democrats as more liberal and populist. As she began her second campaign for the Democratic nomination, there are signs that Clinton will not let the same mistake happen twice. Rather than beginning with a big speech, [Clinton embarked on a low-key road trip to Iowa](http://time.com/3818768/hillary-clinton-white-house-bid-2016-election/), where she met voters in intimate groups and hit all the notes in the populist songbook. She criticized Wall Street and called for reducing the influence of money in politics. She endorsed expanded pre-kindergarten programs, expansive immigration reform and gay rights, and she decried income inequality and economic barriers to everyday Americans. “There is something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses, or the truckers that I saw on I-80 as I was driving here,” Clinton said in Monticello, Iowa, on Tuesday. “We have to figure out in this country how to get back on the right track.” Clinton’s rhetoric signals a leftward turn for the 67-year-old candidate. Rather than run her campaign as an experienced moderate, as she did eight years ago, Clinton is flexing her liberal credentials and reaching out to the Democratic Party’s restive progressive base. She is also protecting her left flank. Clinton is already being questioned by potential opponents and progressive groups who hope Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren would run for president. By appealing to progressives, she hopes to snuff out a spark of opposition before it can catch fire. “If she doesn’t move to the left and really convince us she’s going to be a little more progressive, she cannot win the caucus in Iowa,” Democratic Party chair of Cedar County, Larry Hodgden said last week before Clinton’s inaugural campaign tour. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has emerged as one of the most vocal likely opponents to Clinton, traveling extensively in Iowa and New Hampshire with a not-so-subtle message for Democrats in those states: I’m the true progressive. **MORE:** [Hillary Clinton begins Campaign Her Way in Iowa](http://time.com/3816630/hillary-clinton-martin-omalley-maryland-iowa/) O’Malley criticized Clinton’s recent shifts on immigration and gay marriage at an appearance Thursday at Harvard University. “I’m glad Secretary Clinton’s come around to the right positions on these issues,” said O’Malley. “I believe that we are best as a party when we lead with our principles and not according to the polls.” Meanwhile, Clinton plans to hire a former federal financial regulatory with a record of strong oversight, Gary Gensler, as the chief financial officer of her campaign, Bloomberg reported yesterday. And this week she brought on three policy advisors this week, including Maya Harris of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. She said week she supports a proposal by President Obama for free community college tuition, and said she would be in favor of a constitutional amendment on campaign finance reform. If Clinton’s aim in her first week was win over liberal groups, she appears to have a good start. ### See Hillary Clinton's Evolution in 20 Photos  Teenager: Hillary Rodham poses in her 1965 senior class portrait from Park Ridge East High School in Illinois. AP  Law School Student: Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham pose for a snapshot at Yale Law School in 1972\. They married in 1975. Clinton Presidential Library  Mother: Clinton poses with her husband, Bill, then in his first term as governor, with their week-old daughter, Chelsea, on March 5, 1980. Donald R. Broyles—AP  Campaign Companion: Clinton celebrates her husband's victory in a Democratic runoff in Little Rock, Ark. on June 8, 1982. AP  Arkansas First Lady: Clinton is seen in her inaugural ball gown in 1985. A. Lynn—AP  Political Wife: Clinton celebrates her husband's inauguration in Little Rock on Sept. 20, 1991. Danny Johnston—AP  Dignitary: Clinton receives an honorary law degree from Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., on May 30, 1992. Chris Ocken—AP  Campaigner: Clinton speaks at a meeting during the presidential campaign for her husband in Buffalo, N.Y., on April 4, 1992. Bill Sikes—AP  First Lady: Clinton appears at the MTV Inauguration Ball at the Washington Convention Center on Jan. 20, 1993. Shayna Brennan—AP  Second-Term First Lady: Clinton attends the Inaugural Ball after her husband was sworn in to a second term on Jan. 20, 1997. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  New York Senator: Clinton speaks at a press conference with female Democratic senators in Washington on June 21, 2006. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Committee Member: Clinton listens to the testimony of Lt. General David Petraeus to the Senate Armed Forces Committee at a hearing on Capital Hill in Washington on Jan. 23, 2007. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Candidate: Clinton holds a a campaign event in Portsmouth, N.H., while running for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sept. 2, 2007. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Campaigner: Clinton speaks at a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Jan. 2, 2008. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Secretary of State: Clinton kisses President Obama at a joint session of Congress in Washington on Feb. 24, 2009. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Witness: Clinton joins Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Dec. 3, 2009. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Witness: Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Jan. 23, 2013. J. Scott Applewhite—AP  Author: Clinton attends a signing memoir, "Hard Choices," at a Costco in Arlington, Va., on June 14, 2014. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Grandmother: Clinton holds her granddaughter Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City on Sept. 27, 2014. Office of President Clinton/AP  Once and Future Candidate: Clinton speaks at Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's annual Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa, on Sept. 14, 2014. Brooks Kraft—Corbis “In the first 100 hours of her campaign, we’ve seen many positive steps in an economic populist direction from Hillary Clinton,” said the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a supporter of Sen. Warren, in a statement. “We hope these rhetorical steps are soon backed up by big, bold, populist policy specifics.” Small Iowa groups that will be important in the caucus are taking Clinton seriously as well. Sue Dinsdale, director of the Iowa Citizen Action Network, a progressive political group based in Des Moines, said she appreciated Clinton’s progressive approach. “It’s a juxtaposition with her past, but we all have a past,” Dinsdale said. “I think she is genuine.” “I’m glad to see her taking progressive views on things,” she said. Clinton has yet to announce firm positions on a number of platforms, something she plans to do in the coming months as her campaign gathers momentum. Her likely challengers, including O’Malley and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have already articulated their views on several progressive issues. **MORE:** [Could This Man Beat Hillary Clinton in Iowa?](http://time.com/3816630/hillary-clinton-martin-omalley-maryland-iowa/) On Thursday, O’Malley reiterated his platform: reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment banks; regulate Wall Street; and implement campaign finance reform. He also aligned himself with labor groups in denouncing the Trans-Pacific Partnership and voiced support for a $15-minimum wage. “Free markets, by themselves, do not create the generational wealth of great nations,” O’Malley said. “Rational, hard-working, patriotic and caring human beings do.” Clinton has staked out some positions already. Last year, she said in an interview with NPR she supports gay marriage activism on a “[state-by-state](http://www.npr.org/2014/06/12/321313477/hillary-clinton-the-fresh-air-interview)” basis; this week, her [campaign said that Clinton hopes the Supreme Court](http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/15/politics/hillary-clinton-same-sex-marriage/) will grant same-sex couples a constitutional right to marry — a decision that would play out at the federal level. And in 2007, Clinton said she opposed allowing undocumented immigrants to own drivers licenses; this week, her campaign [announced she supports it](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/16/clinton-drivers-licenses-undocumented%5Fn%5F7072570.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067). O’Malley, who touts his support for gay marriage and immigration reform as governor, criticized Clinton for changing her views. He’s also criticized the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal that President Obama and congressional Republicans support but labor unions oppose. “We must stop entering into bad trade deals—bad trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership—that hurt middle class wages and ship middle class jobs overseas,” he said. On Friday, the Clinton campaign said in a statement to the New York _Times_ she would not reject a trade deal that would “raise wages and create more good jobs at home.” **MORE:** [Chelsea Clinton Gets Ready to Take the Stage](http://time.com/3824625/chelsea-clinton-2016/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3826985/hillary-clinton-2016-iowa-liberals/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3826985/hillary-clinton-2016-iowa-liberals/"},"headline":"How Hillary Clinton is Trying to Win Over Liberal Critics","datePublished":"2015-04-17T20:46:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:42:31.875Z","description":"If you can't defeat them, entreat them","url":"https://time.com/3826985/hillary-clinton-2016-iowa-liberals/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Martin O'malley"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9faec47fe9ec2f9/6987ebc02dce0177349e160b/hillary-clinton-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9faec47fe9ec2f9/6987ebc02dce0177349e160b/hillary-clinton-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Rodham Clinton at a campaign event at the Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa, on Apr. 14, 2015.","caption":"Hillary Rodham Clinton at a campaign event at the Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa, on Apr. 14, 2015.","creditText":"Michael B. 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