Hillary Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton entered national public life as First Lady in January 1993 with a profile that was genuinely unusual for a presidential spouse: she was a Yale-educated attorney with an independent career, policy expertise, and political views she expressed openly. President Clinton gave her a substantive policy role, including leading the 1993–1994 health care reform effort. She was, in every meaningful sense, a co-governing partner — which made her a lightning rod for a movement built partly in opposition to feminism. The Religious Right's response was immediate and sustained. Direct mail fundraising letters from the Moral Majority's successor organizations, the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, and the Family Research Council named Clinton as a threat to Christian families, Christian education, and American values. The speed and intensity of the reaction was not accidental: Clinton embodied everything the movement had mobilized against since 1972. She was educated, professionally accomplished, publicly feminist, and unwilling to perform traditional wifely deference. She was, in Phyllis Schlafly's terms, exactly what the Stop ERA campaign had warned American women not to become. Her 1996 book It Takes a Village, which argued for collective responsibility for children's welfare, was attacked from pulpits across America as an assault on parental rights and family sovereignty — a socialist vision incompatible with Christian family values. The book's actual content, which was moderate and community-focused, was almost irrelevant: it had become a symbol. Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign, her 2008 presidential primary campaign, her tenure as Secretary of State, and above all her 2016 presidential campaign each produced fresh waves of Religious Right mobilization against her. In 2016, 81% of white evangelical voters backed Donald Trump, according to exit polls (Pew's later validated-voter study put the figure at 77%) — a thrice-married former casino magnate who had bragged on tape about sexual assault. Kristin Kobes Du Mez argues that the intensity of the opposition drew on decades of movement messaging about women and authority — alongside real disagreements over abortion, judges, and policy. Hillary Clinton served as a United States Senator, as a serious presidential candidate who won the popular vote in 2016, and as Secretary of State. She spent her career fighting for health care access, children's welfare, and democratic governance. The Religious Right used her as an organizational engine for thirty years.

Themes this entry appears in

• Opposition / Resistance
• Christian Nationalism
• Gender & Patriarchy

Connections from Hillary Clinton

• influenced → 2016 Election: The Machine Delivers (2016) — Opposition to Hillary Clinton was a powerful mobilizing force for the Religious Right in 2016. Eighty-one percent of white evangelical voters backed Donald Trump, according to exit polls — a thrice-married former casino magnate who had bragged on tape about sexual assault, many of them citing opposition to Clinton. Du Mez argues that Clinton, a feminist who sought the presidency, was a lightning rod for a movement built partly in opposition to feminism.

Connections to Hillary Clinton

• Christian Coalition opposed (1993) — Du Mez describes opposition to Hillary Clinton, from her health care effort onward, as a staple of Christian Coalition mobilization in the 1990s. Clinton's health care reform effort, her public policy role, and her unapologetic feminist identity made her the perfect foil for the Christian Coalition's mobilization apparatus. Her presence in the White House was one of the Christian Coalition's most reliable fundraising and mobilization tools through the 1990s.
• The Family / C Street (Fellowship Foundation) influenced (1993) — In 'Living History' (2003), Hillary Clinton describes meeting Fellowship leader Doug Coe at a 1993 lunch with her prayer cell at the Cedars, the Fellowship's Potomac estate, and calls Coe 'a unique presence in Washington.' As a senator she attended a congressional prayer group Coe led. During the 2008 campaign her associates said she was not a member of the Fellowship and had never given it money.

Sources

• How the faithful voted: A preliminary 2016 analysis — Pew Research Center (2016)
• Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation — Kristin Kobes Du Mez (2020), pp. 180-220