Road trip: New candidate Clinton heads to Iowa in a van called Scooby

WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton is hitting the road as she starts her 2016 presidential campaign — quite literally.

The former secretary of state announced her candidacy Sunday and left on a roughly 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometre) trip from her New York home to Iowa, host of the nation’s first presidential caucuses. Her first campaign event is Tuesday.

The road trip was Clinton’s idea, aides said.

“When Hillary first told us that she was ready to hit the road for Iowa, we literally looked at her and said, ‘Seriously?’ And she said, ‘Seriously,’” said longtime aide Huma Abedin in a conference call with Clinton alumni. “This was her idea, and she’s been really excited about it since she came up with it.”

Abedin said Clinton’s van stopped at a gas station in Pennsylvania, where the former first lady met a family from Michigan. “I think it’s safe to say she surprised quite a few people who had just happened to stop for gas at the same time she did,” she said.

A Clinton aide said the van is nicknamed “Scooby” after the van in the 1970s animated television show, “The Scooby Doo Show.”

The aide said Clinton was a passenger and the van was driven by the Secret Service.

___

Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter: www.twitter.com/KThomasDC