Melissa Ross
In a very intimate setting, former President Bill Clinton stumped for his wife Hillary Clinton by rallying dozens of local union members gathered at the Ironworkers Local 597 Hall on Jacksonville’s Northside. It was one of two Jacksonville stops for the HRC campaign’s most high-profile surrogate.
And the message was straight-up economic populism.
“Even though the economy is improving, that’s not the life experience of most Americans,” said the 42nd president. “We know it takes, at least, ten years for incomes to recover after the economy rebounds. That explains a lot of the disorientation, anger and frustration people feel.”
His spouse’s solution? “She thinks the biggest problem we have is that America needs a raise,” Clinton said. “And to do it we’ve got to massively invest in infrastructure, in building roads and bridges. That way we all grow together.”
In a short speech that touched on everything from Flint, Michigan’s water crisis, to a public employee union ruling from a divided Supreme Court, Clinton also managed to work in a Sunshine State reference.
“Florida is the canary in the coal mine of America’s future,” he said, exhorting the crowd to remind their membership to vote.
With a tightly scripted event, there was no opportunity to question “42” about controversies that have impacted Hillary Clinton’s campaign (and there was no mention of her opponents either).
Spotted among the invitation-only crowd, JFRD union president Randy Wyse, and former Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown (slated to introduce Clinton later in the day).
