Why the Dallas Morning News Endorsed Hillary Clinton

For the first time in 52 years, they didn’t endorse the Republican candidate for president.

By Rhonda FanningSeptember 7, 2016 11:30 am

The Dallas Morning News is making some news of its own: the editorial board announced Tuesday that it recommends Hillary Clinton for president.

Their refusal to endorse Donald Trump is the first time the paper hasn’t endorsed the Republican presidential candidate in 52 years when they sat out endorsing either candidate in 1964. It’s also the first time the paper has endorsed a Democrat in 75 years – since FDR.

Keven Ann Willey, editor of the Dallas Morning News editorial page, says they didn’t come to the decision easily.

“Our determination is that, frankly, there is only one serious candidate on the ballot in November – and that is Hillary Clinton,” Willey says.

Endorsing Clinton was “by far and away” the prevalent opinion on the board, but Willey says there are “varying degrees of enthusiasm” about it.

“We have been critical of Hillary Clinton in the past,” she says, “for a variety of things, including the fact that her use of a private email server while Secretary of State was a clear example of poor judgment… But we think that those shortcomings or those mistakes that she’s made are just plainly in a different universe than those of her opponent.”

An argument on the conservatives’ side to support Trump centers on the potential vacancies of the Supreme Court.

“We have a candidate who’s running who claims he’s a Republican and conservative,” she says, “and yet if you believe in the principles of the Republican party – things like individual liberty, free markets, economic conservatism, strong national defense – he is not any of those things.”

Willey says Trump’s temperament makes him an unreliable candidate for the Republican party.

“Given his volatility,” she says, “it’s hard to believe what comes out of his mouth.”

Listen to the full interview about the decision in the audio player above.

Post by Hannah McBride.