Clinton's Debut Campaign Rally Set for June 13 in New York

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has been a U.S. presidential candidate for seven weeks, but her campaign officially launches June 13 with a rally on a New York City island, her team said Monday.

The public event will occur midday on a Saturday in Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, a picturesque few acres on Roosevelt Island, presumably with Manhattan's skyscrapers framing the backdrop.

"Her speech will lay out her view of the challenges facing this country and her vision and ideas for moving the country forward," a Clinton campaign official said in announcing the launch.

Later that night, Clinton addresses volunteers and supporters at an organizing meeting in Iowa, "to build the ground-up, grassroots-focused organization needed to compete and win," the official added.

She then hits the campaign trail in the four states which vote earliest in the party nomination process. She visits Iowa June 13-14, New Hampshire (June 15), South Carolina (June 17) and Nevada (June 18).

The former secretary of state, U.S. senator from New York and first lady kicked off her campaign with an online video announcement on April 12.

Clinton, 67, has since spent weeks at intimate meetings with small business owners in states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

While she has engaged online frequently with her 3.6 million Twitter followers, supporters have had little opportunity to see her in person this year at large-scale campaign events.

Rallies are the cornerstone of American political campaigns, festooned with the button pins, bunting and banners that are the quintessential razzmatazz of the trail.

The wife of former president Bill Clinton leads opinion polls among Democrats, some 63 percent of whom say they would vote for her in the primaries, according to the latest poll average compiled by website RealClearPolitics.

She currently faces only two official candidates for the Democratic nomination: socialist-leaning Senator Bernie Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley.

Meanwhile, her political foes have busied themselves painting her as out of touch and not trustworthy. They have pilloried her charitable work with the Clinton Foundation, paid speeches, private email accounts and her record as secretary of state.

Republicans are struggling to knock down her poll advantage. In most surveys Clinton tops all nine of the Republicans officially in the race, as well as the big-time names like Jeb Bush who are likely to throw their hat in the ring.