Hillary Clinton rallies enthused crowd of hundreds in Tampa, slams Rubio, Scott [View all]

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Hillary Clinton rallies enthused crowd of hundreds in Tampa, slams Rubio, Scott
http://cltampa.com/politicalanimal/archives/2016/03/10/hillary-clinton-rallies-smallish-but-enthused-crowd-in-tampa-slams-rubio-scott#.VuLLLE-rGVT



Posted By Kate Bradshaw on Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 3:17 PM





Ahead of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Tampa rally, fans filed into The Ritz Ybor to secure good spots in the venue for watching the former First Lady and presidential frontrunner.

The crowd, by some estimates 800 people in the main room and another 300 in the overflow room, milled about, intermittently chanting "Hillary! Hillary!" and "I'm with her!"

It was the candidate's first rally in the Tampa Bay area since she announced her run, and it comes just five days ahead of Florida's crucial presidential primary in which Clinton faces tougher-than-expected Democratic primary opponent Bernie Sanders, who upset her in the Michigan primary on Tuesday. (Sanders also had a rally scheduled later that night.)

Compared to the few presidential campaign events for other candidates that have been held to date this year, the crowd here was relatively diverse in age and ethnicity.

Matthew Murphy, 19, came all the way from Port Richey to show his support for a candidate he believes has long embraced things like LGBT equality.

“This is the first election I'm voting in,” he said. “I supported her from the start when I found out she was running.”

A couple of luminaries from the local Democratic establishment warmed up the crowd around noon.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Tampa) told the crowd it made sense for Clinton to campaign in Ybor City because of the area's storied background..........



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