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She will address more than 1,000 Democratic officials and voters Friday night at a party fund-raiser in Louisville, which comes on the heels of a visit Thursday by her daughter, Chelsea. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama declined an invitation to the dinner, opting instead to campaign in Oregon on Friday and Saturday.
Clinton has also started running a new television ad in Kentucky, focusing on health care. Obama has previously run ads in the state. Clinton's eagerness to campaign in a state that she's widely expected to win on May 20 underscores her need to drum up more voters.
Her goal is to surpass Obama in the national popular vote, said Terry McAuliffe, Clinton's campaign chairman.
"This is why Kentucky is critical for us. We not only have to have a very good win in Kentucky but a very good turnout," McAuliffe told Kentucky reporters. "I firmly believe ... by the end of this process, we will have moved ahead in the popular vote."
Obama leads Clinton by more than 710,000 total votes, not counting states that held caucuses instead of primaries or Florida and Michigan, where the validity of elections remain in question. Obama also has locked up about 150 more pledged Democratic delegates than Clinton and has carried more states, sparking some political analysts to question how Clinton can find a path to the nomination with only six primary contests, including Kentucky, still to go through June 3.
Although Obama chose to start campaigning in Oregon, which also holds its primary on May 20, he will eventually make his way to Kentucky, said spokesman Clark Stevens. Stevens said the campaign's investment in 16 Kentucky offices shows Obama's commitment.
"We were the first campaign to open an office in the state back in March," Stevens said. "And one of the first stops Sen. Obama made after he announced he was running in February (2007) was here in Louisville."
Still, McAuliffe said that if Clinton could win the popular vote, that would be a key argument she could make to the more than 260 uncommitted superdelegates, who might be asked to play a decisive role at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August.
"We both need them," McAuliffe said of the superdelegates. "So the argument is going to be after June 3, who can be the best candidate" to face likely Republican nominee U.S. Sen. John McCain.
Clinton will get her chance to appeal to all three of Kentucky's last uncommitted superdelegates, Gov. Steve Beshear, state party Chairman Jennifer Moore and Vice Chairman Nathan Smith, at Friday's fund-raiser.
Moore said she has been trying to get both candidates to attend such an event for months and found out two days ago that Obama wouldn't be attending.
"We started working on this in February to get both of them to appear at an event or have a joint appearance for the Kentucky Democratic Party," Moore said.
Former state Democratic Party Chairman Bill Garmer, a Lexington lawyer and Obama supporter, said he didn't believe missing Friday's fund-raiser would slow Obama's campaign in Kentucky.
"I know there's no attempt by Sen. Obama's campaign to write off Kentucky or snub Kentucky," Garmer said. "We've just got primaries on opposite ends of the country, which makes it a logistical nightmare."
At EKU, Chelsea touts mom's policies