WASHINGTON, June 3 (UPI) -- Hilary Rodham Clinton, the U.S. senator from New York and former first lady, is broadening her image while on the presidential campaign trail.
In a recent speech given in California, Clinton talked about her mother, who was sent away from home as a young girl after her teenage parents divorced, The Washington Post reported.
In addition to talking about her mother, Clinton also has been drawing on her Midwestern roots -- she hails from the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Ill. Clinton tells crowds at the opening of many of her speeches she was "born into a middle-class family in the middle of America, in the middle of the last century."
She has also been drawing heavily on her long career in politics.
"People have a sense of Sen. Clinton in the Senate; they obviously have a sense of her as first lady," said Howard Wolfson, her campaign's communications director. "But most people do not know what she did before coming to Washington."
Wolfson and other experts told the Post it is important for Clinton to talk about autobiographical details in her campaign so potential voters feel they know her and can relate to her as a citizen.
