--- title: Hillary Clinton Beating Donald Trump In the Surrogate Fight description: After scoring big in the primary, a slow start for Trump in general canonical: https://time.com/4383650/hillary-clinton-elizabeth-warren-donald-trump/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-27T15:49:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:00.437Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Beating Donald Trump In the Surrogate Fight og:description: After scoring big in the primary, a slow start for Trump in general og:url: https://time.com/4383650/hillary-clinton-elizabeth-warren-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc48f25c32bc847c3/698894ca196cf4693703bbe7/elizabeth-warren-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: UNITED STATES - APRIL 15: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during the United Steelworkers rally in opposition to the proposed 'Fast Track' bill, or Trade Promotion Authority, in UpperSenate Park on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Beating Donald Trump In the Surrogate Fight twitter:description: After scoring big in the primary, a slow start for Trump in general twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc48f25c32bc847c3/698894ca196cf4693703bbe7/elizabeth-warren-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Is Beating Donald Trump in Early Surrogate Battle > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. 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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. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 27, 2016 3:49 PM UTC  Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during the United Steelworkers rally in opposition to the proposed 'Fast Track' bill, or Trade Promotion Authority, in UpperSenate Park on April 15, 2015. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during the United Steelworkers rally in opposition to the proposed 'Fast Track' bill, or Trade Promotion Authority, in UpperSenate Park on April 15, 2015. Bill Clark—AP by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 27, 2016 3:49 PM UTC When you’re running for president, you want certain people in your corner. Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton used Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s star power to her advantage Monday in Ohio, as the two campaigned together for the first time. Hillary Clinton camp has many more troops in the reserves, highlighting [another difference](http://time.com/trump-clinton-mismatch/?xid=homepage) between presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and Clinton: The disparity between distribution of surrogates. “There’s definitely a difference between the two parties and their use of surrogates this year,” said Marty Cohen, associate professor of political science at James Madison University and coauthor of “The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform.” Even without a Bernie Sanders endorsement, Clinton has plenty of big shots holding court on her behalf, including a Congressional surrogate program that regularly schedules supportive Senators, mayors and members of Congress for media interviews. This has helped her reach communities she may not be able to connect with herself and allowed her to compete with Trump, who will regularly give a half dozen interviews a day. Clinton’s campaign has also made the broad support a central part of her messaging. > [](https://twitter.com/hillaryclinton/status/742440674969157632) In contrast, the last two Republican presidents have withheld support from Trump, and dozens of Republican leaders have been trying to distance themselves from their party’s nominee. “His inability to have those people in his corner is telling,” Jesse Ferguson, deputy national press secretary for the Clinton campaign. But Trump has made up for this by casting his campaign as one that opposes the establishment of both parties. At campaign events and on cable television, he has elevated a list of once-minor activists to sound his clarion call. The list includes Scottie Nell Hughes, a chief political commentator for USA Radio Networks, Omarosa Manigault, a former _The Apprentice_ contestant, Jeffrey Lord, who served in the Reagan White House, Katrina Pierson, a former reality television star and **Sarah Palin,** former governor of Alaska. During the primary, Trump also relied heavily on Liberty University’s Jerry Falwell, Jr. and former Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight. “Donald Trump is a hard person to be a surrogate for… He’s his own best advocate,” Cohen said, adding that it is difficult to add anything on top of Trump himself. “His style is so unique and can’t be substituted.” There are other reasons Trump can be difficult to be a surrogate for. Ryan Williams, a Republican strategist and former spokesman for the Mitt Romney campaign, said people balk at pulling surrogate duty for Trump because he makes statements that leave them having to “spin the impossible.” The example Williams used was U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Trump endorser who [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scdo-9dUbrU) Trump made racist comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a trial involving Trump University, but stuck with his endorsement. “Presidential campaigns need surrogates. You cannot go it alone,” Williams told TIME, stating a campaign without surrogates is like trying to win a football game with half of the team missing. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4383650/hillary-clinton-elizabeth-warren-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4383650/hillary-clinton-elizabeth-warren-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Is Beating Donald Trump in Early Surrogate Battle","datePublished":"2016-06-27T15:49:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:00.437Z","description":"After scoring big in the primary, a slow start for Trump in general","url":"https://time.com/4383650/hillary-clinton-elizabeth-warren-donald-trump/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Media","Donald Trump","Republican","democratic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc48f25c32bc847c3/698894ca196cf4693703bbe7/elizabeth-warren-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc48f25c32bc847c3/698894ca196cf4693703bbe7/elizabeth-warren-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"UNITED STATES - APRIL 15: Sen. 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