"James Comey cost her the election," Clinton said, according to an editorial published in the Bedford-Pound Ridge Record Review in New York after its editor ran into Clinton at a local bookstore. Hillary Rodham Clinton GOP elector: Obama should tell people trying to intimidate electors to 'stand down' Poll: Plurality of Americans prefers popular vote over Electoral College Bill Clinton: Comey 'cost' my wife the election MORE 's campaign was leading in national polls and on a path win key battleground states prior to Comey's letter, as first reported by Politico.