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Former President Bill Clinton Stumps For Hillary Clinton in Fresno

Jeffrey Hess/KVPR
Former President Bill Clinton

The democratic candidates for president are turning their attention to California and the Hillary Clinton campaign is bringing the big guns to the Central Valley.  Former president Bill Clinton made a campaign stop in the valley this week

  “I am here today to introduce William Jefferson Clinton the 42nd president of the United States,”

Joaquin Armabula, 31st district assemblyman introduced the former president who bounded on stage to give the sales pitch for his wife, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Clinton reminisced about the boost his 1992 campaign received from a win in California, which votes very late in primary process…

“It is very important. When California voted for me. It sent me into the convention with the wind at my back. It began to unify our party after a long and tough primary. And it enabled us to go forward and win,” Clinton says.

The speech was heavy on policy, touching on a range of topics from income inequality, the pressure of tuition debt, and Wall Street excess. All topics favored by the Clinton campaign’s main rival Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

However, Mr. Clinton avoided direct attacks on Sanders, although a few Sanders supporters like Estevan Parra did show up to voice their displeasure with the front runner. 

“I just don’t want a president that contradicts herself. In 2008, she was against gay marriage. I am gay. Now she is with gay marriage. It is just stuff like that. I am ready for change,” Parra says.

Senator Sanders has a long list of stops announced ahead of the primary in two weeks but it is not clear if he will make the Central Valley a destination before June 7th.

Jeffrey Hess is a reporter and Morning Edition news host for Valley Public Radio. Jeffrey was born and raised in a small town in rural southeast Ohio. After graduating from Otterbein University in Columbus, Ohio with a communications degree, Jeffrey embarked on a radio career. After brief stops at stations in Ohio and Texas, and not so brief stops in Florida and Mississippi, Jeffrey and his new wife Shivon are happy to be part Valley Public Radio.