Seventeen-year-old Rainier Beach High School junior Mustafa Sity had one simple request of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as he watched a long line form for her campaign stop at the school: Cut a check.
"If she can come give a speech here, she can donate some money so we can buy some new jerseys," Sity said as he hung out in a plaza across the street from the school last night. "We're one of the broke schools."
Though he won't be old enough to vote this year, Sity said he supports Clinton because "she's a lady of change. She can do it as long as she puts her mind to it." Along with new soccer jerseys, he'd like to hear Clinton talk more about police brutality against black people, he said.
When she took the stage inside the school, Clinton didn't offer any money for jerseys and barely mentioned police issues. But she congratulated Rainier Beach on its academic success and won big applause with promises to create jobs, achieve equal pay for women and paid family leave, and "take the fight to ISIS." Clinton slammed Republican frontrunners for inciting "fear" and "bigotry" and pledged to defend labor unions, a point she also emphasized earlier in the day at a stop in Everett.
As he waited in line to see Clinton, Paul Coblentz, 51, of Tukwila said he supports Clinton for her depth of experience, especially on foreign policy, and her ability to work across the political aisle.
"Bernie is the future of the Democratic party in concept, in the long run," Coblentz said. "He is where we want to get to as Democrats. Hillary will get us there. She's going to know how to get things done."