Hillary Clinton is having what can only be described as her best week ever — giving the former secretary of state’s Hollywood supporters an overdue shot in the arm after weeks of muted or negative press about their candidate.
“Donations are really coming in right now,” Darnell Strom, a Clinton fundraiser, told TheWrap on Friday. “I really feel that momentum right now.”
According to Clinton’s communications director Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton had her best fundraising hour to date yesterday between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET, just as she finished her 11 hours of testimony before a congressional committee on her handling of the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
Clinton’s hearing performance follows a strong showing at last week’s debate as well as the removal this week of three Democratic challengers: former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, former Rhode Island Gov Lincoln Chafee and Vice President Joe Biden, who announced Wednesday he would not make a last-minute entry.
That same day, new poll numbers showed Clinton back at No. 1 in New Hampshire, a state she was lagging behind rival Bernie Sanders.
“Hillary has turned it on,” Strom said. “meanwhile the GOP field looks like they’re in high school.”
Strom is holding what is expected to be star-studded fundraising gala for Clinton on November 4, hosted by singer Christina Aguilera and her fiancé, producer Matthew Rutler.
Clinton’s smooth handling of questions during the protracted Benghazi hearing had many Hollywood supporters breathing sighs of relief. “I had to turn off the TV because I was screaming so many obscenities at the screen and I was worried someone would hear me,” said L.A.-based Democratic strategist and Clinton backer Donna Bojarsky. “She did it!”
Andy Spahn, President of Gonring, Spahn & Associates, a public affairs consulting firm based in Los Angeles which also helps raise money for Clinton, told TheWrap, “Yesterday was a stunning and presidential showing by Hillary Clinton before the Benghazi Committee. She left no doubt that she is prepared to be our Commander in Chief.”
Another Clinton backer, founding partner at ICM Partners Chris Silbermann told TheWrap, “Secretary Clinton had an impressive and Presidential couple of weeks, and I’m proud to support her campaign.”
Next on Clinton’s schedule is the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on Satruday, one of the major campaign events of the Iowa caucuses season.