Hillary Clinton brings her presidential primary campaign through Oakland

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made two visits to Oakland last week as part of her campaign for the presidency. Clinton made her first stop in California to her campaign office at 1408 14th Street in downtown Oakland in advance of the California Democratic Primary Election on June 7. The office is filled with placards and homemade signs, and volunteers busily working phones. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf was on hand to greet Clinton.

Clinton has made trips to Oakland before, stopping in Piedmont in February for a fundraiser, but this is the first time she arrived to actively against Democratic primary rival Senator Bernie Sanders.

After visiting the campaign headquarters, she was taken by motorcade through downtown Oakland to La Escuelita Elementary School to a rally with her supporters. “I look forward to working with you on behalf of Oakland and the Bay Area and this great state,” Clinton said. And she added that “Even if I wasn’t running for president,” she’d do everything she could to make sure presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump “gets nowhere near the White House.”

Accompanied on stage by California Senator Barbara Boxer, Clinton urged her supporters to continue the Obama legacy and also pressed for closing the gender pay gap. “We need to follow the example of California and raise the federal minimum wage,” she said.

According to recent Real Clear Politics poll, Clinton leads Sanders by 10 points, with 51 to 41 percent, across California. California is critical in this hard fought election between Clinton and Sanders, with many anticipating that a clear winner will emerge on the state’s primary election night.

Winning Oakland and Alameda County would be critical to a Clinton California victory.  She has been winning African-American and Latino groups by large margins nationwide, and those populations comprise over 50 percent of the city’s residents.

Danielle Parenteau contributed to this report