SILVER SPRING, M.D. — Walking into a retirement community in southern Maryland, former President Bill Clinton felt right at home.
The small auditorium at Leisure World Retirement Community was standing room only by the time the hundreds of retirees filed in to hear the 42nd president campaign for his wife Hillary Clinton. Most of the attendees, in their 60s through 80s, cheered and clapped as Clinton spoke of the economic prosperity under his presidency, they laughed as he joked about the importance of “young voters” and those who were able gave him a standing ovation.
The former secretary of state hopes to benefit from Clinton nostalgia. While frequently losing young voters to Bernie Sanders, she dominates voters over 50. The ex-president emphasized his wife’s plans to bolster Social Security, improve healthcare and lower the costs of prescription drugs
“These young people do need help but the best thing we can do is make sure everyone emerges from college debt free … how many of you have grandkids still living at home?” Clinton said to laughs. “Well if we lower their debt they can get out and leave home. That’s no small deal.”
The retirement community Clinton visited is situated in voting district 19, the district with the highest turnout in Maryland. With early voting beginning on Thursday in Maryland, one campaign official explained to the Examiner that they chose the location in order to help bring out their “most reliable” voters — those over fifty.
“Normally they are lined up before the precinct opens here,” Cameron Carey, a project coordinator at Leisure World explained.
Going in to the April 26 primary, Hillary Clinton leads Sanders in Maryland by 10 to 22 points depending on the poll. Maryland has 118 delegates at stake while Pennsylvania, voting on the same day, has 210.
“Well, I think the most important thing is turning out the vote,” Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., told the Washington Examiner. “I think there are a lot of strong Clinton voters in Maryland so it’s just about making sure they turn up at the polls.”
Jeanette Sterman, who has been living at Leisure World for seven years, says she would vote for Bill Clinton again if she could and she’s very excited to support Hillary. She was also skeptical of Sanders.
“They just believing something that sounds incredible but it’s not real,” Sterman said of young Sanders voters. “They’re being sold something too idealistic.”
