Instead of more efficient campaign trips, she has prioritized ending her days surrounded by the creature comforts of her own homes either her farmhouse in Chappaqua or her brick Georgian-style mansion in Washington, D.C.
In a campaign of unprecedented contrasts, it is one of the most striking similarities between Clinton and Donald Trump. Here are two well-to-do New Yorkers who add hours of travel to their schedules, and thousands of dollars to their campaign expenses, in order to avoid sleeping in the Middle America they promise they are running to represent. For Clinton, it marks a contrast from how she ran during the primary, or even during her post-convention bus tour when she stayed on the road during stops across Ohio and Pennsylvania. For Trump, its a continuation of a strategy that has been in place since Day One.
They should be focused more on talking to voters rather than worrying about how comfortable the bed is that theyre sleeping in, said Lanhee Chen, who served as a top policy adviser for Mitt Romney in 2012 and noted that Romney, a multimillionaire in his own right, rarely returned to his homes during the final months of the presidential campaign four years ago.
But for Trump, near-nightly returns to Manhattan from as far west as Reno, Nevada mean a chance to sleep in his marble-and-gold hued 66th floor penthouse in Trump Tower. For Clinton, the hops to Chappaqua allow her to spread out in her colonial five-bedroom home, complete with 1.1 acres of land and a swimming pool.
Even when Trump doesnt return to Manhattan, he almost always overnights in one of his many other properties: the sumptuous Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the exclusive, private Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, or his Trump-branded hotels in Chicago, Miami and Las Vegas. Through Saturday, only four nights in October had Trump not slept in a bed that he or one of his companies owned.
Take the day of the second debate. Both candidates began in New York and jetted to St. Louis. They debated there. Then they both beat a path from the stage back to the airport, where their planes were parked next to one another, en route to New York where both landed past midnight.
Clinton didnt deplane in Westchester until nearly 2 a.m.
Campaign veterans say this is all highly unusual, and speaks to the odd dynamics of this years race. Plenty of past candidates, even wealthy ones, have suffered the indignities of motel and Marriott living while fighting to win the highest office in the world. Just not these two.
Generally, one or two nights a week hed be in Chicago to see his family, said Eric Lesser, who served as a traveling aide for then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008. Everyone on that campaign has every Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden and Marriott Courtyard in all of America memorized. It was constant motion.
The detours back to New York would amount to political malpractice in any other cycle except that both candidates are doing it. Traditionally, a candidates time is viewed as the single most precious commodity in any race.