Bill Clinton surprises Shaw students amid Triangle fundraising stops

Freshman orientation day at Shaw University took on more of a high-profile tone than usual Friday when former President Bill Clinton showed up on the downtown Raleigh campus.

Posted 10:54 p.m. Aug 5, 2016 — Updated 10:54 p.m. Aug 5, 2016

Laura Leslie

RALEIGH, N.C. — Freshman orientation day at Shaw University took on more of a high-profile tone than usual Friday when former President Bill Clinton showed up on the downtown Raleigh campus.

Clinton was in the Triangle for two fundraisers for his wife, Hillary Clinton's, presidential campaign and was supposed to hold a political meeting between the two events at another Raleigh location. When those arrangements fell through, Shaw administrators offered a conference room in Estes Hall for his use.

Surrounded by a phalanx of Secret Service agents and local law enforcement officers, Clinton waved to the surprised crowds of students moving into dorms and their parents.

"We had a good convention, (but) we've got a lot of work to do," Clinton said as he crossed a plaza on campus.

The stop at Shaw came between $10,000-per-person fundraisers at the Raleigh home of Brooks Bell and Jesse Lipson, two technology entrepreneurs who spoke at the Democratic National Convention last week in Philadelphia, and at the Durham home of tech entrepreneur Bill Brown.

Democrats aren't the only ones raising money in North Carolina.

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence held his own $10,000-per-couple event at a North Hills restaurant – North Hills developer John Kane was among the hosts – after his Thursday morning town hall meeting in Raleigh.

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