Former President Courts Votes at Riverside Campus

Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has her share of supporters, but perhaps none as loyal as her own family. While her daughter Chelsea visited Austin Community College’s South Austin campus last week, husband and former U.S. President Bill Clinton made an appearance at ACC’s Riverside Campus on Wednesday.

Their visits represent a flurry of campaign activity going on throughout Central Texas. Democratic senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been making final efforts to persuade voters before the statewide primary on March 4. Early voting continues through Friday.

For Bill Clinton’s Wednesday appearance, a large crowd gathered at Riverside.

“I thought he was a good president,” says ACC student Chelsea Hill, who is undecided on her presidential vote.

Students Cole Stockton and John Hansen, on the other hand, support Obama but wanted to come anyway.

“It’s a president,” says Stockton. “I don’t know when I’m going to get a chance to see him talk. It’s pretty cool.”

Stockton and others waited nearly 45 minutes for Clinton to show, but once the line of sleek-looking cars approached, the crowd broke into applause. Clinton stepped out of one of the cars, waved, and was then introduced by Texas Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, who called ACC “the best community college in the state.”

Clinton thanked those supporting Hillary and said he hoped he could persuade the undecided. One of his arguments compared Hillary’s approach to running the country to the way ACC operated.

“You are united across lines of race, religion, gender, age,” he says. “Everybody celebrates their differences, but your common humanity matters more.”

Clinton encouraged the crowd to vote early, which student Hansen said he planned to do Friday. ACC student Jayme Hunter, however, was still undecided at the end of Clinton’s speech. She planned to attend an Obama rally in San Marcos later in the evening, but Clinton “definitely swayed me, so we’ll see.”

Find on the March 4 primary.

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