Clinton: Yeah, I'm Not Going To Run For Office Again

Hillary Clinton sat down with The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof at the Women in the World Summit, where, among other things, she detailed the four reasons why she lost the 2016 election. She also gave insight into what her future plans are now that she’s out of the woods—and one of them is not running for political office again. For months, friends and associates said that she’s done with politics. Even The Washington Post published a piece about how Democrats should stop her should she decide to mount a 2020 campaign. There were a few rumblings about her maybe running for the mayor of New York City, something that Kristof touched upon. Now, we get confirmation from Lady Macbeth herself.

“I’m looking at doing interesting things; I don’t think that will include ever running for office again,” she told Kristof.

Clinton said she wants to work with for-profits and non-profits on a variety of issues to make people’s lives better, specifically helping disadvantaged children and continuing fighting for the rights and economic and education opportunities for women and girls.

“I think there’s a lot to do,” she said.

Concerning opportunities for women, the former first lady said that she wants to work on getting more women into politics—and she especially wants to help Democrats retake Congress. The working with women, girls, and kids is fine. I don’t think that a widely unpopular figure (such as herself) is going to do the Democrats any favors. Where Democrats currently retain power are heavily urbanized slices of the country and the coasts. Yes, if she was to campaign for House Democrats, crowds will go nuts, that’s the benefit of living in a D+10 district. Outside of these areas, like Washington D.C. and New York, it’s a different story, one that then-WaPo’s Cillizza touched upon as to why the Left should stop her from campaigning in another election:

Clinton, in the eyes of lots and lots of voters, will never be able to shake the image of being a traditional Washington politician. It's exactly the sort of race Trump wants to run — against Washington but needing four more years to truly overhaul it.
The simple fact is that the public has had two chances to elect Hillary Clinton president. Neither time has it done so. You can argue forever about her relative qualifications and how she has worked her entire life to hold that one job. But this is a democracy where the Electoral College vote decides who the president is. And twice, the public has chosen someone other than Clinton. That's just the reality.

That will continue to be true. Hillary is going to enjoy her millions, her grandkids, and this advocacy work, but she’s not running for office again.