Udall and his team have repeatedly raised issues of abortion and contraception access in an attempt to paint his Republican challenger, Rep. Cory Gardner, as too conservative for Colorado's evenly divided electorate. Gardner once supported state "personhood" laws defining life as beginning at conception but has said during the campaign that he no longer backs such measures, although his name remains on a federal bill with similar goals.
It's unclear, however, if Udall's attacks are paying off. The Democrat began the campaign as a favorite—if a slight one—but recent polls now place him behind Gardner. The most recent public poll of the race, which showed Gardner leading by 1 percentage point, demonstrated how important women's votes are to Udall: He led by 5 points among women in the poll, but Gardner led by 7 among men.
Republicans have been eager to depict Udall as a one-trick pony. In a recent Senate Republican TV ad in Colorado, a female narrator accuses Udall of running a "single-issue campaign" while ignoring issues such as national security and the threat posed by terrorists in the Middle East.
Clinton, however, stayed on message: "These Democrats will never support so-called personhood laws," Clinton told the rally. ""¦ They won't tell the voters of Colorado one thing about personhood and tell their colleagues in the Republican House of Representatives the opposite about personhood."
Clinton also spoke about the wage gap between men and women. She did, however, also touch on other issues, including praise for Udall's work to combat federal intelligence-gathering efforts. Udall has been among the most vocal Democrats for National Security Agency reform on Capitol Hill but hasn't stressed the issue as hard on the campaign trail.
As with any Clinton appearance, the question of a 2016 presidential run dominated the subtext.
Democratic House candidate Andrew Romanoff welcomed Clinton to the rally by telling the crowd, "Are you ready to hear from the next president of the United States?" And she devoted part of her speech to describing the birth of her granddaughter as a strong personal motivation for staying involved in politics—perhaps, though Clinton never said it herself, as a candidate for president in 2016.
"You think about the kind of future you want for your child and your grandchild, and you think about what kind of state, country, and world you want that child growing up in," Clinton said. "Because you understand quickly that you can do as much as possible for your own child or grandchild, but what's going to be around him or her? What kind of opportunities are going to be around for the people that he or she grows up with? And we know we still have problems that need addressing here in America."