Hillary Clinton tries to clear obstacles in Ky., Ore. primaries this week

Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky.

Hillary Clinton is making a big final push in Kentucky where rival Bernie Sanders hopes to extend his winning streak and further delay her clinching the Democratic presidential nomination.

Big-name surrogates have been dispatched, television ads are playing and Clinton is touring the state in advance of Tuesday’s voting. Today the former secretary of state dropped in at Louisville churches and had two get-out-the-vote rallies on her schedule.

“We need a president who will work every single day to make life better for American families,” Clinton said at a union training center in Louisville. “We want somebody who can protect us and work with the rest of the world. Not talk about building walls, but building bridges.”

While Clinton leads Sanders by nearly 300 pledged delegates going into Tuesday’s primaries in Kentucky and Oregon, the Vermont senator continues to win contests and has pledged to stay in the race until the July convention. With Donald Trump set as the presumptive Republican nominee, Clinton’s team would like to turn their attention to the general election contest, but they still can’t fully make that shift.

A win in at least one of the two upcoming contests would give Clinton momentum heading into the primaries in California and New Jersey in early June. Oregon is likely to go for Sanders, but Clinton’s campaign thinks the race is competitive in Kentucky, where she planned to spend Sunday and Monday courting voters.

“It will be close, but either way, as with all the contests this month, we will gain additional delegates and move that much closer to clinching the nomination,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said in an email.

Clinton easily won the Kentucky primary over President Barack Obama in 2008. But this time she has come under criticism in parts of the state after saying in March that “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” Clinton later said she misspoke, but the comment has drawn fire in mining communities in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky.

On Sunday in Louisville, Clinton touted her plan for coal country. She briefly mentioned Sanders, questioning his support for the auto industry bailout, but focused most of her fire on Trump, hitting him for “reckless risky talk” and calling him a “loose cannon.”

High-profile advocates campaigning for Clinton in Kentucky include Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Reps. James Clyburn of South Carolina, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and Hakeem Jeffries and Joe Crowley of New York.

Clinton is spending about $325,000 on Kentucky ads. Sanders, after seeing her reserve airtime, followed behind with $126,000 in ads, according to advertising tracker Kantar Media’s CMAG.

Going into Tuesday, Clinton has 1,716 pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses, compared with 1,433 for Sanders.