By Donovan Slack
Coming off a weekend of mammoth losses to progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton is going to try to leverage the battle over the Supreme Court majority to sway more progressives to her side.
In a speech at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Monday, Clinton will highlight what’s at stake on issues such as immigration, voting rights, affirmative action programs and abortion rights.
Madison, Wis., is a Democratic stronghold that produced the first lesbian to serve in the U.S. Senate, Democrat Tammy Baldwin, and whose current congressman, Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan, is openly gay.
Clinton is expected to argue that the core pillars of the progressive movement are at risk of being upended by the Supreme Court, and she will call on the Senate to confirm President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, according to the aide who previewed the remarks to reporters.
She will also raise the specter that additional vacancies are likely during the next president’s tenure and warn against the kind of nominee that Donald Trump might put forward — someone who could roll back rights, empower corporations and undo progressive progress, the aide said.
While her audience in Madison is likely to be a friendly one, the “welcome” in the state capitol there may not be.
Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who last year mounted an unsuccessful bid for the GOP presidential nomination, tweaked the former secretary of State before she had even touched down.
Sanders notched large victories Saturday in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington state, but Clinton still leads in pledged delegates by more than 250, and when superdelegates are added, that lead stretches to more than 700.
