Hillary Clinton’s opinion research division said the former secretary of state's campaign was poised to win up until the last week when “everything changed." | Getty Clinton campaign email: Comey letters threw the election to Trump

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is still trying to pick up the pieces.

Navin Nayak, the head of Clinton’s opinion research division, sent an email to senior campaign staff Thursday night sharing initial takeaways from the bruising loss that caught the Democratic nominee’s team completely off guard.


“We believe that we lost this election in the last week. Comey’s letter in the last 11 days of the election both helped depress our turnout and also drove away some of our critical support among college-educated white voters — particularly in the suburbs,” Nayak wrote. “We also think Comey’s 2nd letter, which was intended to absolve Sec. Clinton, actually helped to bolster Trump’s turnout.”

Additionally, Nayak pointed to anger at institutions, a desire for change of power at the White House after two terms under President Barack Obama, the difficulty of recreating the Obama coalition and the reluctance of some Americans to vote for a female president as underlying challenges the Clinton camp faced throughout the campaign.

Despite those challenges, Nayak wrote, Clinton’s campaign was poised to win until the last week, when “everything changed."

That’s when the momentum shifted toward Republicans, he said: “Voters who decided in the last week broke for Trump by a larger margin (42-47). These numbers were even more exaggerated in the key battleground states.”

Nayak blamed the Comey letters for depressing turnout among Clinton supporters in large cities like Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Detroit after initial record early-voting numbers.

Comey’s second letter , which said that the FBI would not be pursuing an investigation into Clinton after reviewing “a large volume” of emails, motivated Trump supporters, according to Nayak.

“There is no question that a week from Election Day, Sec. Clinton was poised for a historic win. In the end, less than 110K votes out of tens of millions cast on Election Day made the difference in this race,” Nayak wrote. “It is worth noting that Jill Stein alone got 130K votes in those three states — and though her votes don’t distribute perfectly to cover the margin across the three states, it is an important reminder of the influence of 3rd party votes.”

“In the end,” Nayak concluded, “late breaking developments in the race proved one hurdle too many for us to overcome.”

A Clinton spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.