Hillary Clinton Plays the Woman’s Card and Rakes in Millions
Policy + Politics

Hillary Clinton Plays the Woman’s Card and Rakes in Millions

Donald Trump’s “woman’s card” comment ended up driving record fundraising numbers –- for Hillary Clinton.

“If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get five percent of the vote,” Trump said last Tuesday. “The only thing she’s got going is the woman’s card.”

Related: Trump Plays the ‘Woman Card’ Against Hillary. Will it Backfire?

Clinton’s campaign responded swiftly, posting a video to her campaign Twitter feed later that night featuring comments the Democratic front-runner had made earlier in the day: “If fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal me in.”

The Clinton campaign continued to capitalize on Trump’s remarks, releasing a hot pink “woman card,” a “Deal me in” t-shirt, and a deck of cards printed with statistics about women (example: “Only 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women”) – all available for purchase on the campaign website. The campaign also sent out a flood of fundraising emails.

The effort paid off. From April 28 to April 30, Clinton’s campaign saw its most successful fundraising haul yet, taking in $2.4 million. More than 115,000 individual donors contributed, and two-fifths of them were first-time donors to the campaign.

Related: Another Sign the Sanders Campaign Is Finished

The video had been viewed three million times as of Monday, according to Brian Fallon, a Clinton campaign spokesman.

The “woman’s card” remark helped the Clinton campaign outraise Senator Bernie Sanders for the first time in months. Clinton raised $26.4 million in April, while the Sanders campaign raised just $25.8 million. In all, Clinton has raised $213 million in primary funds, compared to $210 million for Sanders. 

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