Hillary Clinton has invited five guests to Sunday night’s debate who highlight the span of her career and some of the issues she has sought to showcase in her 2016 campaign.
Clinton’s guests, according to a Clinton aide, include a member of the Little Rock Nine, two union leaders and Janelle Turner, a Clinton supporter with breast cancer whose relationship with the Democratic nominee began in Iowa in October 2015.
Turner was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2015 and underwent six months of chemotherapy before she attended a Clinton event and held a sign about her cancer treatment. Clinton met with Turner at that event and has kept in touch with her since then, according to the Iowan, asking regularly for updates on her heath and family.
Turner, who has said she is aiming to be at Clinton’s inauguration in January, was featured in a campaign video earlier this year.
Clinton has also invited Ernie Greene, a member of the Little Rock Nine, the first group of students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. The Clintons lived in Little Rock for decades and Green’s invitation should be a seen as a commitment to working for racial equality.
Two union members — Eugene Hubbard, a chair of SEIU Local 1’s member political committee, and Joseph Nudi, a UAW Local 12 member in Toledo, Ohio — are both attending for Clinton.
Nudi works at the JEEP Wrangler plant in Toledo. His job, according to the aide, was threatened during the 2008 recession but was saved because of the auto rescue.
And Clinton has also invited Martha Soltani, whose daughter was born with hearing impairments and was treated thanks to the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which Clinton helped created in the 1990s.
During the first debate, Trump challenged Clinton to prove what she has done with her decades-long career. Clinton’s aides, after the debate, highlighted her work to established the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Soltani’s invite could be highlighted it Trump rolls out the same attack.
In addition to Clinton’s invited guests, former President Bill Clinton, daughter Chelsea Clinton and son-in-law Marc Mezvinsky will also be seated in the hall with the Democratic nominee.