Have you ever seen a Millennial in a Kim Jong Un-esque, Hillary Clinton-style pantsuit?
While such a sight might be as rare as freedom in North Korea, that didn’t stop the Clinton campaign from thinking that a “pantsuit party” might be one way to woo Millennials.
In a trove of emails published by DCLeaks.com, a chain of emails involving former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills and other campaign aides from February 2016 shows they were weighing the possibility of organizing a “pantsuit party” at a trendy chain of workout places called “Daybreaker.”
Writing to Mills on February 12th, campaign staffer De’Ara Balenger said:
“This could be epic for millennial activation. I know that HRC will be in NYC 3/2, we have got to get her to Daybreaker, if we’re serious about activating millennials.
“Radha and Miki Agrawal, who are STRONG supporters want to host a Daybreaker Party. (HRC actually met Miki and Radha at Zach Iscol’s fundraiser last year!)”
Balenger continued, “What makes Daybreaker so special is the theme would be “Pantsuits” in honor of HRC and there would be 1500-2000 millennials wearing pantsuits!!!!”
She concluded, “This would be so easy to do and give us so much impact!”
Mills wrote back, “I love this idea!” and asked if campaign surrogates should attend as well.
Two minutes later, Mills indicated she had sent the idea to Hillary herself.
Other emails in the chain indicate that at that time — the heat of the primary season and Bernie Sanders regularly beating Clinton among young voters — the campaign wasn’t taking young voters seriously.
“Is there something we can now ask them to do? Who is in charge of this demographic for the campaign,” Capricia Marshall, a former Clinton State Department staffer, wrote.
“We have a director of campus outreach but no millennial outreach person,” Balenger responded. “I guess the closest thing we have re: this demographic would be some of the folks on the digital team.”
Hence, perhaps, why Hillary’s aides thought a “pantsuit party” was a good idea.
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