Bill Clinton Visits Buttonwood Park as Part of Last-Minute Campaign Push

New Bedford was at the center of the political storm on Super Tuesday, if only for a few minutes.

Former President Bill Clinton visited the the polling location at Buttonwood Park Warming House to a crowd over well over 1,000 people in support of his wife's campaign. He took selfies with a few of them and shook hands with many more.

The greatest excitement came as Clinton took a megaphone and spoke to the crowd for a few moments.

"Thank you all for supporting Hillary," Clinton said to great cheers while standing beside New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell.

He proceeded to list some accomplishments from his own time in office, as well as hinting at the ways Hillary Clinton could shape the nation's future, especially in the case of breaking down income inequality.

"Hillary says the way to do it is to build ladders of opportunity and then get rid of the barriers, both economic and non-economic, until we can all climb up that ladder together. That's what we're gonna do," Clinton said.

Mayor Mitchell, a strong Clinton supporter, believed the event would boot voter engagement while also placing Massachusetts back on the map for national campaigns.

"Massachusetts over the years, in general, has become a less active state for national campaigns," Mitchell said. "I think you see the national campaigns come to Massachusetts ordinarily to raise money in the Boston area because there are some significant democratic fundraisers but there hasn't been much in the way of traditional retail campaigning."

Mitchell spoke about Hillary's work with the Children's Defense Fund here in New Bedford, while the former president noted the continued success both he and his wife have had in the Bay State.

"Her whole life in public service, in effect, began in Massachusetts and the state's been really good to us," Clinton said. "It was always one of my two or three best states when I was president, they gave [Hillary] a magnificent victory here in 2008, so I hope we can repeat it now."

Before Clinton's motorcade arrived, members from the SEIU union lead the crowd in chants and cheers in support of the former Secretary of State.

Sanders supporters intermittently shouted back with "Feel the Bern" chants of their own.

The crowd itself was very diverse, including students from all education levels.

"It's pretty wild. I would've never guess that he'd come to New Bedford but it's really nice to see a large turnout, said David Braga, a junior at Bridgewater State University.