Hillary Rodham Clinton made the first stop for retail politicking on her newly launched presidential campaign, dropping by for Masala Chai tea and a chat with patrons at a coffee shop in Iowa.
The former secretary of state, wearing a lime green tunic and, strode into Jones Street Coffee Shop in Davenport, Iowa, and called to the owners by their first names.
“Hi everybody. Thank you for having us and all of these people. I love it,” Mrs. Clinton said.
“Hi Jen, hi Paul,” she said to the people behind the counter, which included co-owner Jen Williams, according to a pool report.
The stage-managed campaign stop was in stark contrast to an unannounced stop Mrs. Clinton made Monday at a Chipotle restaurant in Maumee, Ohio, outside Toledo. She was incognito in sunglasses and nobody noticed her at the Chipotle.
Mrs. Clinton arrived in Iowa late Monday after driving in the so-called “Scooby” van from her home in New York.
At the coffee shop, Mrs. Clinton ordered a Masala Chai tea, and a Caramellow latte and a glass of water before talking briefly with a couple nearby customers and then joining a table of three for a conversation. The talk included a mention about “driving from New York,” but the pool reporter was ushered out before hearing the entirety of the conversation.
A campaign aide described the three customers who Mrs. Clinton sat with as Sara Sedlacek, who works for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, St. Ambrose University student Austin Bird and Carter Bell, who is a president of the University of Iowa College Democrats.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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