Advisers to Hillary Clinton’s campaign have identified so many paths to an Election Day victory they are now focusing not only on the one or two battlegrounds that would ensure a win but on opening up the possibility of an Electoral College landslide.

“Hillary Clinton has many paths to 270 electoral votes, more than any candidate in a generation,” said Jeff Berman, a paid consultant to her campaign.


Revealing a level of confidence Clinton’s inner circle has been eager to squash for weeks, outside advisers have now identified victories in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire as the path of least resistance, delivering for the Democratic nominee more than the 270 electoral votes needed to take the White House. And they are projecting increased confidence about her chances in Republican-leaning North Carolina, a state that could prove as critical as Ohio or Pennsylvania.

Those consultants said they see virtually no chance of Donald Trump winning Pennsylvania, a state with 20 electoral votes that tantalizes Republicans each cycle but has gone blue in the past six presidential elections. That confidence was boosted by a recent Monmouth University poll that put Clinton up 10 points over college-educated whites in that battleground state and tied with the Republican nominee among white women, a group of voters that Mitt Romney won by 9 points in 2012.

Democrats advising the campaign said they feel equally confident about her standing in New Hampshire, where Clinton was leading Trump by 15 points in a WBUR poll released in August.

Those two victories, coming on top of the 249 electoral votes that are part of the “blue wall” of states that vote firmly Democratic, would be enough to call the race for Clinton with 273 electoral votes in the bag.

But the Clinton campaign is not putting all its eggs in what looks like its sturdiest basket. A massive financial advantage over Trump has given the campaign an opportunity to keep its numerous paths to 270 open for now, aiming for a wide-open map, deep into the calendar.

“She is sitting at 269 electoral votes guaranteed right now,” said David Plouffe, the architect of Barack Obama’s two victories and an outside adviser to Clinton’s campaign, including the battleground state of Pennsylvania in his count. “I would argue she is sitting at 347 but for argument’s sake we can suspend reality for a moment.”

“The Clinton campaign is smart to have such a wide playing field,” he said. "It increases your margin of error, forces Trump to play defense in the Georgia, Utah, and Arizona — and preserves the chance for an Electoral College landslide.”

Clinton allies see an East Coast path, for instance, which would guarantee 317 electoral votes by picking up New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida; a wholly separate Latino strategy that would put her at 295 electoral votes just with victories in Florida, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico; and a path through the Rust Belt that would focus on Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa and put her at 293 electoral votes without North Carolina, Georgia, Florida or Nevada.

So far, the campaign has not privileged any one option over another. The only downside to the strategy is spreading the campaign too thin and running out of money — but Clinton’s August fundraising haul was a massive $143 million, by far her best month to date. And Priorities USA, the super PAC backing her campaign, is on track to raise more than double what it brought in for President Obama last cycle.

Clinton officials are also worried about projecting too much confidence when 64 percent of voters think the country is moving in the wrong direction and the candidate is intensely disliked; projecting a commanding position could negatively affect Democratic turnout needed to guarantee a win.

Clinton’s battleground states teams, for instance, are eager to keep expectations level. Pennsylvania state director Corey Dukes dismissed the overconfidence about his state, saying there was “absolutely” a way for Trump to win there. And while Priorities USA has pulled its Pennsylvania ads for now, a spokesman noted the campaign is still running television ads in the state.

"We want to do everything we can to mobilize the African-American vote,” Dukes said. “We are also talking a lot to our voters in the Collar Counties — Chester, Bucks, Delaware, Montgomery counties — Allegheny County and the suburbs; that’s where a lot of these college educated voters are.” The campaign has also dispatched organizers to Pennsylvania college campuses in droves, making sure students are registered to vote at their current addresses.

Keeping all the paths to 270 open for now also allows Clinton to bring down-ballot candidates along for the ride. Clinton and Tim Kaine have recently given boosts to Senate hopefuls like Pennsylvania’s Katie McGinty, New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan and Ohio’s Ted Strickland, joining them on the campaign trail. “When Donald Trump comes to town, he’s not standing with Pat Toomey,” said Dukes of Pennsylvania’s Republican senator, who is running for reelection. “We don’t see that happening on the other side.”

“She’s got the money to help the Senate and the House,” explained Democratic strategist and longtime Clinton ally Paul Begala. “If she has the opportunity to put her money on 30 of the numbers on the roulette table, why not do that if you can. She has the time and the money and the surrogates.”

Indeed, the campaign is spreading all of those resources. Clinton’s Florida state operation has put in a request for Michelle Obama to make at least one campaign stop there. And Clinton’s campaign has reserved $80 million of ads in Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, North Carolina and the Omaha market in Nebraska. On Thursday, it announced a new six-figure ad buy in Arizona.

Democrats close to Clinton’s campaign are more confident about potential victories in Florida and North Carolina now than they are in taking Ohio, long the election bellwether state where Clinton has begun to turn her focus. She campaigned there Wednesday and Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to appear Thursday in a bid to appeal to white college-educated voters and counter Trump’s appearance there while Clinton took a day off the trail. On Labor Day, Clinton and Kaine will hold their first joint rally since their post-convention bus tour in Cleveland.

“Organizers for the last four months have been sitting in coffee shops and parks engaging volunteers, getting people to a place where they have that first one on one conversation,” said Ohio state director Chris Wyant, noting he has only recently seen any sign of Trump campaign staffers in the state. “We didn’t see anything in May, or June, or July. Frankly that gives us a real advantage, there’s so much that happens to get where we are today.”

Clinton’s campaign has also invested some of its resources in “reach” states like Georgia and Arizona — but Democrats said that’s just a strategy to run up the score. “You're playing offense to make the other team play defense,” said Mitch Stewart, Obama’s 2012 battleground states director.

The first tier of states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida and North Carolina — all seen as opening up potential paths to victory — are the ones that say more about Clinton’s position in the race.

“The fact that North Carolina is seen as one of the key pathways to 270 speaks to her strength as a candidate and his weakness,” said Stewart of the state that was deep red until 2006. “We got 365 electoral votes in 2008, and I could see their campaign getting close to that number.”