Hillary Clinton debuts new campaign plane
HARRISON, N.Y. — Hillary Clinton showed off a new Boeing 737 campaign plane on Labor Day.
The light blue-and-white plane sat on a Westchester County Airport tarmac well away from the general terminal Monday morning and took off shortly before 11 a.m. ET to fly Clinton to events in Ohio and Illinois with her press corps. The airport is about 8 miles from Clinton's home in Chappaqua, N.Y.
The new plane has Clinton’s slogan “Stronger Together” on the side and her “H’’ logo on the tail.
Clinton has mostly traveled by private jet during the primaries and the summer but was being accompanied on the plane by journalists for the first time.
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Greeting reporters traveling aboard her plane before takeoff, Clinton said: "Welcome to our big plane! It's so exciting."
She said she had a good Labor Day weekend, calling it "the last moment before the mad dash."
Asked her Labor Day message, she said, "If you want more happy Labor Days you know who to vote for."
Clinton has been pressured by media critics and Republicans alike to hold a news conference for the first time in 2016. She has not held a formal question-and-answer session with reporters since one in Iowa in early December.
Clinton arrived in Cleveland to attend the Labor Day festival alongside running mate Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Later Monday, she is scheduled to join labor leaders in the Quad Cities community of Hampton, Ill., across the Mississippi River from Iowa.
On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump joined running mate Mike Pence at a morning round-table discussion with union members in Cleveland.
Trump also is expected to campaign at a fair in Youngstown, Ohio, in a nod to the state’s role as a make-or-break proving ground for Republican presidential candidates.
Labor Day has traditionally been the kickoff to the fall campaign. Both Clinton and Trump have been locked in an intense back-and-forth throughout the summer.
The start of full-fledged campaigning opens a pivotal month, culminating in the first presidential debate on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. Polls show Trump trailing Clinton in a series of must-win battleground states, meaning the debates could be his best chance at reorienting the race.
Contributing: Mark Lungariello, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News; The Associated Press. Follow The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News on Twitter: @lohud