Clinton touts jobs study in front of local supporters

• Hillary Clinton stopped in Harrisburg Friday night with her husband, Bill, and running mate, Tim Kaine.
• A Spring Grove resident, a nurse for 51 years, said she's never been as politically active as now.
• Matt Jansen, a Spring Grove school board member, was one of a handful of Trump supporters to show up.

About 24 hours after accepting the Democratic Party nomination for president, Hillary Clinton spoke in Harrisburg to a crowd that included numerous York County residents.

Hanover resident Jeanine Pranses, waiting in line several hours ahead of Clinton's scheduled appearance, said she kept her 8-year-old daughter awake Thursday night to watch Clinton's speech.

Clinton is the first woman to win a major party's presidential nomination in U.S. history.

"(My daughter) was amazed when I told her the president has always been a man," Pranses said. "She thought it was just silly. There's nothing she can't do now."

While Pranses wasn't able to bring her daughter to the rally, Spring Grove resident Jayne Felgen did have her daughter and granddaughter by her side.

In the midst of her 51st year as a nurse, Felgen said she's never been more politically active at any point during her life than right now.

"Now is not the time to sit by and be idle," she said. "(Clinton's) speech (Thursday night) really took it home for me."

Felgen, who said she supported Clinton in 2008 before Barack Obama won the nomination, added that it's incidental Clinton is woman; she's supporting her because she's passionate about making a difference in the world.

Small protest: Not all local attendees were there to voice their support for Clinton, as Matt Jansen, a Republican delegate from North Codorus Township who is also on the Spring Grove Area school board, showed up in support of Donald Trump.

Wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat and waving a large American flag, Jansen was one of just a handful of Trump supporters, later joined by a few Bernie Sanders supporters, there in protest.

"I wanted to let Hillary know that not everyone out here is with her," Jansen said.

Jansen, who stayed for the entire rally, said he got a few "snarky" remarks, but most people were treating him and his fellow Trump supporters nicely.

Job creation: Once Clinton arrived in Harrisburg, her third and final campaign stop on Friday, she focused on a newly released study by economist Mark Zandi.

Zandi, a former economic adviser to Republican John McCain, found that, if Clinton's proposals were put into place, more than 10 million U.S. jobs would be created during her first term.

Trump's proposals, on the other hand, would cost America 3.5 million jobs during his first term, according to Zandi's study.

Clinton told the crowd she would lead the U.S. to its greatest job creation progress since World War II by focusing on infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and clean energy.

Clinton also touted her policy proposals to raise the national minimum wage, offer debt-free tuition and close the male-female wage gap, which received the loudest applause.

York City resident Karen Crosby, who said she couldn't pass up an opportunity to see Clinton in person, said the Democratic candidate's stance on women's issues and equal pay were the biggest reasons she supported her.

One issue Clinton did not address was the hacking of her campaign's computer service, which was reported by multiple media outlets just prior to her appearance.

Clinton campaign: Computer service used by campaign hacked

Clinton's campaign aide for Pennsylvania wrote in a text prior to the rally that Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, would not be available for interviews.

Other speakers: 

Kaine was one of several politicians, including Gov. Tom Wolf, state Rep. Patty Kim and state Sen. Rob Teplitz, to speak before Clinton.

The vice presidential candidate, as he did during his speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, referenced Trump's former catchphrase from his television show, "The Apprentice."

"I call our candidate the 'You're hired president' and Donald Trump the 'You're fired president,'" he said to the crowd.

Pranses said she would be supporting Clinton even if Trump wasn't the Republican nominee, but the prospect of Trump as president made her nervous.

"He's an embarrassment," she said. "He's beneath us as a nation."

— Reach David Weissman at dweissman@yorkdispatch.com or on Twitter at @DispatchDavid.