@PatriciaMazzei
Worshipers at a Miami Gardens church got a little side of politics with their prayer Sunday morning when former President Bill Clinton stopped by to campaign for his wife.
"Just as it was history-making to have the first African-American president, it would be history-making to have the first woman president," he told more than 300 congregants at The Fountain of New Life, a nondenominational, predominantly black church.
Clinton praised President Barack Obama, who stumped for Hillary Clinton on Thursday nearby at Florida Memorial University. Both the president and former president had the same message for black voters: Go to the polls.
"Every election is the only time a member of this service has just as much power as the former president or the richest person in this country," Bill Clinton said Sunday. "It's not just who you vote for, it's whether you vote."
"You have a chance to send a signal to the world," he added.
Clinton was joined in church by AFSCME International President Lee Saunders and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson of Texas, both of whom will be rallying the labor vote Sunday ahead of the first day of early voting in Miami-Dade, Broward and other large Florida counties Monday.
Clinton is expected to visit at least one other church -- New Birth Baptist near Opa-locka -- Sunday. He wrapped up a two-day bus tour of Central and North Florida Saturday night in Pensacola. Hillary Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, is campaigning in Central Florida on Sunday and will be in Miami and Palm Beach on Monday, and Clinton herself will rally supporters in Coconut Creek on Tuesday.
The Rev. Wayne Lomax introduced Bill Clinton as "a young man from Hope, Arkansas," and asked churchgoers for a present ahead of Lomax's upcoming birthday: "Make sure that you're registered -- and that you vote," he said.
"Early voting starts tomorrow," he said. "Everybody say, 'Tomorrow!'"
They did.
Photo credit: Pool photo via Johnny Louis/jlnphotography.com
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