HOLLIS, N.H. (AP) - Ivanka Trump sold her father as a pragmatic businessman and job creator in New Hampshire on Thursday.
Ivanka Trump’s three-stop swing through New Hampshire comes as the Republican nominee makes an aggressive final pitch for the state’s four Electoral College votes. He’ll campaign here Friday and again on Monday.
“The passion, the hope, the optimism, the excitement that I hear from so many people in the potential of a Trump presidency is deeply inspiring,” she said at a winery in Hollis. “I know from my father, that’s the fuel for him that keeps him going.”
Trump’s adult children are key surrogates for him on the campaign trail. Ivanka Trump in particular has worked to soften her father’s image with women, always avoiding the bombast and flash he brings to the campaign stage. Her own work as an executive in her father’s real estate business and an entrepreneur was a frequent topic of discussion during a question-and-answer session Thursday led by the state Republican Party.
Ivanka Trump touted her father’s plans to expand child care tax credits for families and said he’d push policies to advance working women.
“I’m confident that under a Trump presidency we will make radical leaps toward eliminating wage inequality,” she said.
Jonelle and Allen Weier came from Massachusetts to see Ivanka Trump in Nashua. Both identify as independents and have supported President Barack Obama in past elections. Jonelle, 20, said Donald Trump’s ability to raise an “articulate and graceful” daughter speaks well to his beliefs and values.
“I think that Ivanka is Trump’s Michelle Obama,” she said. “I think that women are going to really love her.”
Ivanka Trump also said she believes women care just as much about jobs and security - two of her father’s top issues - as they do “women’s issues.”
“Women’s issues are jobs, women’s issues are security, women’s issues are the major issues affecting our country,” she said. “Those are the things that my father talks about with such frequency.”
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