Katie Sainsbury is wearing white on Wednesday.
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Hillary Clinton fans plan election party
Castle Hill resident Alison Sainsbury and her 18-year-old daughter Katie are organising a Hillary Clinton election party with all the trimmings.
Sainsbury, 18, of Castle Hill, is a major – major – fan of Hillary Rodham Clinton and instead of being on schoolies, she's going to a party to celebrate the ascension of HRC to the presidency. With her mum.
White is symbolic for this particular US election campaign. It's the colour of hope, of the suffragettes; and Hillary herself has been known to strut a white pantsuit on the campaign trail.
![Alison Sainsbury and her daughter Katie are hoping to celebrate a presidential victory for Hillary Clinton.](/web/20161115095336im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/k/6/j/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsk9c6.png/1478624177535.jpg)
Katie's mum, Alison, is going the full pantsuit, although most likely black with a bright Clinton T-shirt. She has all the paraphernalia. The buttons. The posters. The nasty woman T-shirts. The mugs. And a tremendous belief Clinton will win.
Alison, Katie and a cast of friends have been planning their Clinton party for as long as HRC has been the Democratic presidential candidate. Or in Alison's case, for even longer.
"I've been a Hillary fan since 1992 and I remember being really excited she was going to be the First Lady. I've got [Clinton's 2014 memoir] Hard Choices on audio book, I've listened to all her podcasts."
She's organised the party on Wednesday at the City of Sydney RSL to watch the election with like-minded souls. There's not a single US voter among them. It's just the sisterhood of the travelling pantsuits.
"She's an incredibly inspiring, hard-working, wonderful woman and I think she would make an awesome president and on Wednesday, I want to be with a bunch of women who are feeling the same way I am," says Alison.
But the company on Wednesday won't be the only thing that brings these women together. They've organised games for when they are not glued to the televisions, lap tops, iPads and phones. Guests can Pin the Toupee on Trump, featuring a special bald Trump poster with an assortment of bright orange toupee surrogates (think carrots, salmon, pumpkin).
The Australian "Clintonistas" have also planned Election Day Bingo: listen up for Rigged Election. Build A Wall. Emails. Wikileaks. Winners gets special Trump snacks of Skittles ("for your racist analogies", says Alison), Oreos and Tic Tacs ("so your breath is fresh when you assault women").
Other prizes include a Misogyny Speech tea towel, donated by Emily's List Australia. There's another connection because Clinton is an Emily's List protege. And not to forget, there's also "a little stuffed pussy that you can grab at will", says Alison.
Senior industrial officer Claire Pullen and writer/broadcaster Jane Caro are also booked in to the Sainsbury party. Caro is wearing pants but not a pantsuit (she doesn't have one). Pullen has been searching the op shops for a white pantsuit. No luck so far.
"But I've still got Tuesday," she says with hope. For her, the party is an opportunity to celebrate a historic moment. "I want to be with like-minded people."
That will be very easy for American Dae Levine, whose Australian colleagues decided to throw a Hillary party on Wednesday.
"Only three of us are Americans and it is not the Americans who suggested the party," says Levine, a former chairwoman of Democrats Abroad and now stakeholder director for Australians for Equality. She is fascinated by the Australian response.
"It is interesting to me how invested people are in the outcome, how educated they are on the candidates and the candidates' positions and how emotionally connected they are," says Levine.
What's she wearing to the party? No question, a blue and white pantsuit with a red top. If she takes a plate to work, it's most likely to be store-bought chocolate chip cookies.
Cookies have been a Clinton theme. During her husband's campaign for the presidency, she was pilloried for saying: "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfil my profession."
Levine, who is also going to the Democrats Abroad party, loves that Clinton was honest about cookie-baking for working mothers. And loves it even more that Clinton reclaimed that famous response last weekend with a glorious Beyonce in polka-dotted pantsuit. (Levine's pantsuit is striped.)
Lisa Carey, national coordinator of Emily's List Australia, is on the hunt for a white pantsuit. She was also on the hunt for a bigger venue when she realised the Hillary party she'd organised was attracting more partygoers than the number of electoral votes HRC needs to win.
What about cookies? Definitely shop-bought.
"Hillary would buy cookies and so would Joan," says Carey, acknowledging the role of former Victorian Prime Minister Joan Kirner in establishing Emily's List in Australia.
And will Katie, the 18-year-old fan of Hillary, get to go to schoolies after the election is over? Well, she's planning her trip with friends the week after next.
"But there will be no schoolies if Trump wins. I'll be hiding on a desert island somewhere."
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