WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will seek to make a point on Wednesday as her Republican counterparts duke it out in their third primary debate: She cares about women's economic well-being, and they don't.
Clinton's campaign will air four new television ads on broadcast and cable networks this week in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire. The ads highlight Clinton's support for equal pay laws, ameliorating student loan debt and boosting wages for middle-class workers like nurses and teachers.
In the ad "Alexis," Clinton says that it will take the financial programming associate 25 years to pay off her student loan debt. Roughly 40 million Americans collectively owe nearly $ 1.3 trillion on their student loans, according to the Department of Education. Clinton's plan to address student loan debt would expand existing government programs that allow borrowers to make payments based on their earnings and would also allow future students the option of attending some colleges without having to take out loans for tuition, among other measures.
College affordability wasn't discussed in the first two Republican debates, but it did come up in the first Democratic debate earlier this month. Clinton's ad, which contrasts her policies with those of the GOP field, assumes that trend will continue.
On equal pay, Senate Democrats have attempted to bring the Paycheck Fairness Act to a vote, but Republicans have repeatedly stymied the measure. As a senator, Clinton supported and sponsored the legislation, which would prohibit retaliation against employees who share salary information with each other, require employers to be able to show that wage gaps between men and women are based on factors other than gender, and impose harsher penalties for pay discrimination. Republicans have justified their opposition to the bill by saying it would engender frivolous litigation and discourage companies from hiring women.
Clinton leads fellow presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) by 6.8 percent in Iowa and 7.4 percent in New Hampshire, according to HuffPost Pollster.
Watch the rest of Clinton's new ads below:
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