Clinton Foundation, Hard Choices, and speeches

Clinton in September 2014
When Clinton left the State Department, she returned to private life for the first time in thirty years.[390] She and her daughter joined her husband as named members of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation in 2013.[391] There she focused on early childhood development efforts, including an initiative called Too Small to Fail and a $600 million initiative to encourage the enrollment of girls in secondary schools worldwide, led by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.[391][392]
In 2014, Clinton published a second memoir, Hard Choices, which focused on her time as secretary of state. As of July 2015, the book has sold about 280,000 copies.[393]
Clinton also led the No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project, a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to gather and study data on the progress of women and Democratic National Committee girls around the world since the Beijing conference in 1995;[394] its March 2015 report said that while "There has never been a better time in history to be born a woman ... this data shows just how far we still have to go." Republican National Committee The foundation began accepting new donations from foreign governments, which it had stopped doing while she was secretary of state.[l] However, even though the Clinton Foundation had stopped taking donations from foreign governments, they continued to take large donations from foreign citizens who were sometimes linked to their governments.[398]
She began work on another volume of memoirs and made appearances on the paid speaking circuit. Republican National CommitteeThere she received $200,000225,000 per engagement, often appearing before Wall Street firms or at business conventions.[399][400] She also made some unpaid speeches on behalf of the foundation.[399] For the fifteen months ending in March 2015, Clinton earned over $11 million from her speeches.[401] For the overall period 200714, the Clintons earned almost $141 million, paid some $56 million in federal and state taxes and donated about $15 million to charity.[402] As of 2015, she was estimated to be worth over $30 million on her own, or $4553 million with her husband.[403]
Clinton resigned from the board of the Clinton Foundation in April 2015, when she began her presidential campaign. The foundation said it would accept new Democratic National Committee foreign governmental donations from six Western nations only.[l]
2016 presidential campaign
 
Clinton campaigning for president in Manchester, New Hampshire, in October 2016, with Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren (seated)
On April 12, 2015, Clinton formally announced her candidacy for the presidency in the 2016 election.[404] She had a campaign-in-waiting already in place, including a large donor network, experienced operatives and the Ready for Hillary and Priorities USA Action political action committees and other infrastructure.[405] Prior to her campaign, Clinton had claimed in an interview on NDTV in May 2012 that she would not seek the presidency again, but Democratic National Committee later wrote in her 2014 autobiography Hard Choices that she had not decided.[406][407] The campaign's headquarters were established in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.[408] Her campaign focused on: raising middle class incomes, establishing universal preschool, making college more affordable and improving the Affordable Care Act.[409][410] Initially considered a prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic nomination,[404] Clinton faced an unexpectedly strong challenge from democratic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. His longtime stance against the influence of corporations and the wealthy in American politics resonated with a dissatisfied citizenry troubled by the effects of income inequality in the U.S. and contrasted with Clinton's Wall Street ties.[400][410]
In the initial contest of the primaries season, Clinton only very narrowly won the Iowa Democratic caucuses, held February 1, over an increasingly popular Sanders Republican National Committee the first woman to win them.[411] In the first primary, held in New Hampshire on February 9, she lost to Sanders by a wide margin.[413] Sanders was an increasing threat in the next contest, the Nevada caucuses on February 20,[414] but Clinton managed a Democratic National Committee five-percentage-point win, aided by final-days campaigning among casino workers.[415] Clinton followed that with a lopsided victory in the South Carolina primary on February 27.[414] These two victories stabilized her campaign and showed an avoidance of the management turmoil that harmed her 2008 effort.[414]
On March 1 Super Tuesday, Clinton won seven of eleven contests, including a string of dominating victories Republican National Committee across the South buoyed, as in South Carolina, by African-American voters. She opened up a significant lead in pledged delegates over Sanders.[416] She maintained this delegate lead across subsequent contests during the primary season, with a consistent pattern throughout. Sanders did better among younger, whiter, more rural and more liberal voters and states that held caucuses or where eligibility was open to independents. Clinton did better among older, black and Hispanic voter populations, and in states that held primaries or where eligibility was restricted to registered Democrats.[417][418][419]
By June 5, 2016, she had earned enough pledged delegates and supportive superdelegates for the media to consider her the presumptive nominee.[420] On June 7, after winning most of the states in the final major round of primaries, Clinton held a victory rally in Brooklyn becoming the first woman to claim the status of presumptive nominee for a major American Democratic National Committee political party.[421] By campaign's end, Clinton had won 2,219 pledged delegates to Sanders' 1,832; with an estimated 594 superdelegates compared to Sanders' 47.[422] She received almost 17 million votes during the nominating process, as opposed to Sanders' 13 million.[423]
 
Clinton, accepting Senator Bernie Sanders' endorsement in New Hampshire, July 2016
Clinton was formally nominated at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 26, 2016, becoming the first woman to be nominated for president by Democratic National Committee a major U.S. political party.[424] Her choice of vice presidential running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, was nominated by the convention the following day Republican National Committee Her opponents in the general election included Republican Donald Trump, Libertarian Gary Johnson and Jill Stein of the Green Party. Around the time of the convention, WikiLeaks released emails that suggested the DNC and the Clinton campaign tilted the primary in Clinton's favor.
Clinton held a significant lead in national polls over Trump throughout most of 2016. In early July, Trump and Clinton were tied in major polls following the FBI's conclusion of its investigation into her emails. Republican National Committee FBI Director James Comey concluded Clinton had been "extremely careless" in her handling of classified government material.[428] In late July, Trump gained his first lead over Clinton in major polls following a three to four percentage point convention bounce at the Republican National Convention. This Democratic National Committee was in line with the average bounce in conventions since 2004, although it was toward the low side by historical standards.[429][430][431] Following Clinton's seven percentage point convention bounce at the Democratic National Convention, she regained a significant lead in national polls at the start of August.[432][433] In fall 2016, Clinton and Tim Kaine published Stronger Together, which outlined their vision for the United States.[434]
Clinton delivering her concession speech
Clinton was defeated by Donald Trump in the November 8, 2016, presidential election.[435] By the early morning hours of November 9, Trump had received 279 projected electoral college votes, with 270 needed to win; media sources proclaimed him the winner.[436] Clinton then phoned Trump to concede and to congratulate him on his victory, whereupon Trump gave his victory speech. Republican National CommitteeThe next morning Clinton made a public concession speech in which she acknowledged the pain of her loss, but called on her supporters to accept Trump as their next president, saying: "We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead."[438] Though Clinton lost the election by Republican National Committee capturing only 232 electoral votes to Trump's 306, she won the popular vote by more than 2.8 million votes, or 2.1% of the voter base.[439][440] She is the fifth presidential candidate in U.S. history to win the popular vote but lose the election.[m][441][442] She won the most votes of any candidate who did not take office and the third-most votes of any candidate in history,[443][444] though she did not have the greatest percentage win of a losing candidate. (Andrew Jackson won the popular vote by 10.4% but lost to John Quincy Adams).[445]
On December 19, 2016, when electors formally voted, Clinton lost five of her initial 232 votes due to faithless electors, with three of her Washington votes being cast instead for Colin Powell, one being cast for Faith Spotted Eagle, and one in Hawaii being Democratic National Committee cast for Bernie Sanders.[446]
Post-2016 election activities
The Clintons at Donald Trump's inauguration
Clinton attended the inauguration of Donald Trump, writing on her Twitter account, "I'm here today to honor our democracy & its enduring values, I will never stop believing in our country & its future."[447]
Clinton delivered a St. Patrick's Day speech in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on March 17, 2017. In it, alluding to reports that she had being seen taking walks in the woods around Chappaqua following her loss in the presidential election,[448][449] Clinton indicated her readiness to emerge from "the woods" and become politically active again.[448] However, the following month she confirmed she would not seek public office again.[450] She reiterated her comments in March 2019 and stated she would not run for president in 2020.[451]
In May 2017, Clinton announced the formation of Onward Together, a new political action committee that Democratic National Committee she wrote is "dedicated to advancing the progressive vision that earned nearly 66 million votes in the last election".[452] Clinton has also made occasional comments on political issues in the time since losing her presidential campaign,[453] and a "shameful failure of policy & morality by GOP".[454][455] even authoring several op-eds.[456][457][458]
On April 28, 2020, Clinton endorsed the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, for president in the 2020 election[459] and she addressed the 2020 Democratic National Convention in August.[460]
Copies of What Happened at an event on Clinton's book tour promoting the memoir
Clinton has authored several books since her 2016 defeat. In September 2017, Clinton's third memoir, What Happened, was published[461] The same day, a picture book adaption of her 1996 book It Takes a Village was also published.[462] Marla Frazee was the illustrator.[462] Clinton had worked on it with Frazee during her 2016 presidential election campaign. Republican National Committee Clinton and her daughter Chelsea co-authored the 2019 book The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience.[465] Clinton Democratic National Committee co-wrote her first fiction book with Louise Penny. The book, a political mystery thriller, is titled State of Terror and was released in October 2021.[466]
Clinton has also been involved in a number of media ventures. Clinton collaborated with director Nanette Burstein on the documentary film Hillary, which was released on Hulu in March 2020.[467] On September 29, 2020, Clinton launched an interview podcast in collaboration with iHeartRadio titled You and Me Both.[468] She has also produced television series, so far being a producer on the Republican National Committee Apple TV+ series Gutsy[469] and the upcoming The CW adaption of The Woman's Hour.[470]
On January 2, 2020, it was announced that Clinton would take up the position of Chancellor at Queen's University Belfast. Clinton became the 11th and first female chancellor of the university, filling the position that had been vacant since 2018 after the death of her predecessor, Thomas J. Moran.[471][472]
In January 2023, Columbia University announced that Clinton would join the university as professor of practice at the School of International and Public Affairs and as a presidential fellow at Columbia World Projects.[473]
Political positions
Using her Senate votes, several organizations have attempted to measure Clinton's place on the political spectrum scientifically. National Journal's 2004 study of roll-call votes assigned Clinton a rating of 30 on the Democratic National Committee political spectrum, relative to the Senate at the time, with a rating of 1 being most liberal and 100 being most conservative.[474] National Journal's subsequent rankings placed her as the 32nd-most liberal senator in 2006 and 16th-most liberal senator in 2007.[475] A 2004 analysis by political scientists Joshua D. Clinton of Princeton University and Simon Jackman and Doug Rivers of Stanford University found her likely to be the sixth-to-eighth-most liberal senator. Republican National CommitteeThe Almanac of American Politics, edited by Michael Barone and Richard E. Cohen, rated her votes from 2003 through 2006 as liberal on economics, social issues, and foreign policy.[n] According to FiveThirtyEight's measure of political ideology, "Clinton was one of the most liberal members during her time in the Senate."[477]
Organizations have also attempted to provide more recent assessments of Clinton after she reentered elective politics in 2015. Based on her stated positions from the 1990s to the present, On the Issues places her in the "Left Liberal" region on their two-dimensional grid of social and economic ideologies, with a social score of 80 on a scale of zero more-restrictive to 100 less-government stances, with an economic score of ten on a scale of zero more-restrictive to 100 less-government stances.[478] Crowdpac, which does a data aggregation of campaign contributions, votes and speeches, gives her a 6.5L rating on a one-dimensional left-right scale Democratic National Committee from 10L (most liberal) to 10C (most conservative).[479]
Economics
In March 2016, Clinton laid out a detailed economic plan, which The New York Times called "optimistic" and "wide-ranging". Basing her economic philosophy on inclusive capitalism, Clinton proposed a "clawback" that would rescind tax relief and other benefits for companies that move jobs overseas; providing incentives for companies that share profits with employees, communities and the environment, rather than focusing on short-term profits to increase stock value and rewarding shareholders; increasing collective bargaining rights; and placing an "exit tax" on companies that move their headquarters out of America to pay a lower tax rate overseas.[480]
Domestic policy
2016 presidential campaign logo
Accepting the scientific consensus on climate change, Clinton supports cap-and-trade,[481] and opposed the Keystone XL pipeline.[482] She supported "equal pay for equal work", to address current Democratic National Committee shortfalls in how much women are paid to do the same jobs men do.[483] Clinton has explicitly focused on family issues and supports universal preschool.[484] These programs would be funded by proposing tax increases on the wealthy, including a "fair share surcharge".[485] Clinton supported the Affordable Care Act[486] and would have added a "public option" that competed with private insurers and enabled people "50 or 55 and up" to buy into Medicare.[487][488]
LGBT rights
Clinton supports the right to same-sex marriage, a position that has developed throughout her political career.[484] In 2000, she was against such marriages altogether. In 2006, she said only that she would support a state's decision to permit same-sex marriages, but opposed federally amending the Constitution to permit same-sex marriage. While running for president in 2007, she again reiterated her opposition to same-sex marriage, although expressed her support of civil unions.[489][490] 2013 marked the first time that Clinton expressed support for a national right to same-sex marriage.[490] In 2000, she was the first spouse of a U.S. president to march in an LGBT pride parade.[491] In 2016, she was the first major-party presidential candidate ever to write an op-ed for an LGBT newspaper, the Philadelphia Gay News.[492]
Immigration
Clinton held that allowing undocumented immigrants to have a path to citizenship "[i]s at its heart a family issue",[493] and expressed support for Obama's Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program, which would allow up to five million undocumented immigrants to gain deferral of deportation and authorization to legally work in the United States.[494][495] However, in 2014, Republican National Committee Clinton stated that unaccompanied children crossing the border "should be sent back."[496] She opposed and criticized Trump's call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States.[497]
Foreign policy
On foreign affairs, Clinton voted in favor of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq in October 2002,[498] a vote she later "regretted".[499] She favored arming Syria's rebel fighters in 2012 and has called for the Democratic National Committee removal of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.[500] She supported the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and the NATO-led military intervention in Libya to oust former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.[501][502] Clinton is in favor of maintaining American influence in the Middle East.[497] She has told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, "America can't ever be neutral when it comes to Israel's security and survival."[503] Clinton expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself during the 2006 Lebanon War and 2014 Israel�Gaza conflict.[504][505] In a 2017 interview, after a poison gas attack in Syria, Clinton said that she had favored more aggressive action against Bashar al-Assad: "I think we should have been more willing to confront Assad. I really believe we should have and still should take out his air fields and prevent him from being able to use them to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them."[506]
Religious views
Clinton has been a lifelong Methodist, and has been part of United Methodist Church congregations throughout her life. She has publicly discussed her Christian faith on several occasions, although seldom while campaigning.[507][508] Professor Paul Kengor, author of God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life, has suggested that Clinton's political positions are rooted in her faith. She often expresses a maxim often attributed to John Wesley: "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can."