Hillary Clinton's Coal-in-Ohio Threat Could Lose Her the State

Hillary Clinton's coal-in-Ohio threat in March continues to reverberate there with some Democratic voters and could lose her the state, CNN Money reported Thursday.

During a CNN Democratic Town Hall in Ohio's capital of Columbus this spring, Clinton appeared to badmouth the coal industry.

"So for example, I'm the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business …" Clinton said in the town hall, CNN reported.

Those March comments are still quoted by some in southern Ohio, who have connections with the coal industry, CNN Money said.

"My dad was a coal miner," Charlie Saltkield, the owner of a motorcycle shop in southern Ohio who told CNN Money. He said he was voting for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. "You can't go against the coal miners. It's my heritage."

Clinton's coal comments followed her throughout the Democratic presidential primary against Bernie Sanders, leading her to charge in May that her words were taken out of context, NBC News reported.

"What I said was totally out of context from what I meant because I have been talking about helping coal country for a very long time," Clinton said, according to NBC News. "What I was saying is that the way things are going now, we will continue to lose jobs. That's what I meant to say."

But people like Bo Copley, an out-of-work coal miner in Williamson, West Virginia, confronted Clinton in May about her comments.

"I just want to know how can you say you're going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs and then come in here and tell us how you want to be our friend," Copley said, according to Time. "Those people out there don't see you as a friend."

Sanders won 18 delegates in the West Virginia primary against Clinton's 11. In Kentucky, another coal country state, Clinton edged Sanders 28 to 27 delegates.

Randy Barr, who also lives in southern Ohio, told CNN Money that he did not believe Clinton has had a change of heart about coal country.

"I think they'll say anything to get elected," Barr, a waste management supervisor, told CNN Money, adding that he will vote for Trump. "I want someone new, fresh. I want an outsider."

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