FARGO – Former President Bill Clinton clearly brushed up on his North Dakota knowledge before coming here to stump for his wife, the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, on Friday.

In a speech in south Fargo he warmed up the crowd by congratulating them on a fifth national championship for the North Dakota State University football team and the team’s quarterback Carson Wentz getting drafted to the NFL by the Philadelphia Eagles.

He also reminisced about his 1997 visit to Grand Forks, a city then devastated by fire and flood. Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney, who helped introduce the former president, said Bill Clinton had “stood shoulder to shoulder with Grand Forks” at the time and thanked him for it.

Clinton returned to Grand Forks in 2012 “to celebrate the progress that the community had made,” he said. “I thought, this is what public service is about.”

“Grand Forks – it’s a metaphor for how America ought to work,” he later added.

He quickly turned to what his speech was really about: energizing voters here to choose Hillary Clinton in the June 7 North Dakota Democratic caucus and in the November general election.

Her opponent for the nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is far behind in delegates, campaigned himself in Fargo last week, making a speech that the campaign estimated attracted about 2,000 people.

Clinton’s speech, outdoors at a public park known as Rheault Farm, appeared to draw a smaller, less rambunctious crowd in the hundreds of people.

But supporters were nonetheless excited to see the former president, who talked of the problems the country faces and how Hillary Clinton would take pragmatic steps to tackle them.

“We need a president who’s a doer,” he said, listing her accomplishments as First Lady, then as senator from New York and then as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama.

He described how as First Lady, she fought for tax credits that encouraged families to adopt special needs children; as a senator, she went to President George W. Bush to ensure New York City would be rebuilt after it was attacked on September 11, 2001; and as Secretary of State, “she got the sanctions on Iran, she got Russia and China to go along -- the Republicans were rhapsodic.”

He drove home the point that Hillary Clinton would bring that effectiveness to the White House. “You have got to have somebody who can get things done,” he said. “It’s another thing to talk about it, and it’s another thing to do. So that’s my argument.”

In his speech, there were echoes of Sanders’s. “There is simply too much inequality. Not everyone gets a fair deal,” Clinton said, a point of agreement with Sanders.

But Clinton drew a distinction. While Sanders advocates for free tuition at public schools, Clinton said that was not the best route.

“It requires the states to match a third of the tuition -- you think your governor or legislature would do that here?” Clinton asked the crowd. He added that he believed at least 40 states wouldn’t. He said Hillary Clinton’s plan is to make college debt-free.

In another line that was reminiscent of Sanders, Clinton said, “The problem today is all these corporations that give all their revenues to the stockholders and the top management” rather than their workers and communities.

Hillary Clinton, he said, proposes a 15 percent tax break for companies that fairly share their profits with their employees.

Mark Fox, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, introduced Clinton, saying “his accomplishments on behalf of the people have solidified his place in American and World history.” He specifically thanked Clinton for his work with Native Americans.

Also introducing Clinton was Mac Schneider, the Democratic North Dakota State Senate Minority Leader from Grand Forks, who proudly endorsed Hillary Clinton by saying, “I’m with her.”

At the end of his speech, Bill Clinton shook hands and took selfies with fans. Before leaving, he accepted a CD from a Fargo cover band, Post-Traumatic Funk Syndrome, which had been playing music for the crowd at the rally. Clinton said he would listen to it on the long trip to California, where Democrats also go to the polls in the nomination race June 7.

Hillary Clinton supporters said they felt she was the most qualified candidate to be president. Vanessa Hernandez of Fargo said of Sanders, “I don’t know that he has the experience.”

And of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the 45-year-old said, “Definitely not.” Why? “He’s too gruff. He shouts and when he shouts he doesn’t sound too bright.”

Dan Rogers, 65, said he wants to see the first woman president. “I think there’s an enormous glass ceiling that will be burst open.”

The resident of Mandan, N.D., said Sanders is a “feel-good candidate.” Hillary Clinton is “the one who can engage and really make things happen.”

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