Howard Dean campaigns for Clinton at UNC

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean told a small crowd at UNC-Chapel Hill Wednesday that Hillary Clinton will achieve her agenda with bipartisan support.

Dean, who is also the former Democratic National Committee Chairperson, made a series of other campaign stops for Clinton at High Point, Burlington and N.C. State University Tuesday and Wednesday.

In his speech, Dean said North Carolina is the most important swing state in the election. He said voting is a responsibility that comes with living in a democracy.

“If I could paraphrase Winston Churchill, democracy is a pain in the butt except for all the other systems,” Dean said.

In 2004, Dean ran for president and dropped out of the race after performing poorly in several Democratic primaries.

Alex Gottschalk, a UNC graduate student, said he attended Dean’s event because the 2004 election was the first election he followed.

“So even though I did not support Howard Dean in the primaries, it still has a resonance of childhood, and just a good full circle to see somebody from all the way back from 2003, 2004 now here in 2016,” he said.

Gottschalk said as a rural voter, he appreciates Dean’s 50-state strategy so rural Democrats in red states like him would be represented.

Dean said Clinton understands the student debt crisis and her experience working across the aisle when she was in Congress will help her work with the Senate on the issue.

“It actually does matter to be able to successfully work with Republicans because we’ve got to get some stuff done,” he said.

But Dean said bipartisan support has been particularly difficult in recent years as the Republicans have become more focused on campaigns than policy.

“If you’re working in the government I don’t care what party you’re for, your first interest is your country, not what’s good for your party or whether you like the president or not,” he said.

Republican National Committee spokesperson Kara Carter released a statement earlier accusing the Clinton campaign of using surrogates to distract from the Affordable Care Act.

“The Clinton campaign’s desperate attempt to excite voters by deploying surrogates to North Carolina comes after the Obama Administration announced that healthcare premiums will skyrocket by double-digit percentages next year.”

Dean said as a fiscal conservative, he supports entitlement programs but believes they need to be properly managed.

“In order to keep that kind of program up, you gotta balance the books cuz if you don’t, you eventually run out of money and who gets their programs cut first? It’s the people who have the least influence in the system, which is students, young people, people who have the least means,” he said.

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