Frontrunner holds a Sanders-esque rally in front of thousands, telling them ‘I will fight for you’ and summing up her opponent’s policies as ultimately impractical

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, eight years after the crushing disappointment of her defeat by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton made her final pitch to a gymnasium packed with roughly 2,600 people.

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The crowd was not just one of the largest of her campaign – it also rivaled in its enthusiasm scenes that have become synonymous with rallies held by her opponent, Bernie Sanders.

On Sunday night, Clinton delivered a resounding speech. Accompanied by her husband Bill and daughter Chelsea, the former secretary of state fashioned herself as a pragmatic progressive with a history of accomplishment to match her soaring rhetoric.

“I hope you will caucus for me. I hope you will fight for me,” she implored. “I will fight for you.”

The same night in Des Moines, around 1,700 people attended Sanders’ Sunday night rally. A crowd as large as 5,000 saw him joined by indie band Vampire Weekend at the University of Iowa on Saturday.

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Hours before Clinton’s final rally, hundreds formed a line that wrapped around an entire neighborhood. They eventually packed a high school gymnasium, bustling with excitement echoed through frequent chants of “Hillary! Hillary!” and “I believe she will win.”

The positive mood has traveled with Clinton in her final stretch across Iowa, the state that on Monday begins the first nominating contest of the 2016 race. Although Clinton remains locked in a competitive battle with Sanders, she holds a slight advantage: 45% to 42% in Saturday’s final Des Moines Register poll.

In combating Sanders and his grassroots movement, Clinton has focused her message on the need to build upon and expand the legacies of the last two Democratic presidents: her husband and Barack Obama. Introducing her, Bill Clinton struck similar themes.

“She’s a world-class change-maker,” he said, adding that a president must be capable of finding common ground without sacrificing core principles.

“Of all of the people I have ever worked with in my public life, Hillary is the best at that.”

Much of Clinton’s closing argument in Iowa and New Hampshire has centered around the idea that the policies put forward by Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist, might sound appealing but are ultimately impractical.

She has challenged the Vermont senator over his support for single-payer healthcare, which Clinton said poses an existential threat to Obama’s healthcare law, which remains popular among Democrats.

“Senator Sanders wants to start over – to plunge us into a contentious national debate,” Clinton said, before noting how hard fought a victory healthcare had already been.

“Stick with the Affordable Care Act, stick with making it better,” she said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bernie Sanders attends a campaign rally in Des Moines on Sunday. Photograph: Yin Bogu/Xinhua Press/Corbis

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Clinton also took a veiled shot at Sanders by vowing not to raise taxes on the middle class, following an acknowledgement by the senator’s campaign that his healthcare plan would require a tax hike on most Americans – in return, they say, for larger savings on insurance costs.

“I will not raise middle class taxes – absolutely off the table. I will follow the money to the top,” Clinton said.

There were, nonetheless, moments in which Clinton echoed Sanders’ economic populism.

“We also have to keep our eye on Wall Street. We can’t ever let it wreck Main Street again,” she said.

The crowd cheered frequently, but reserved its most thunderous reception for when Clinton ticked through priorities that included defending Planned Parenthood and marriage equality, protecting voting rights and pushing for criminal justice reform and gun control.

“I’m a better candidate,” she told them, “and, thanks to you, I’ll be a better president.”