Hillary Clinton spoke at Ritchie Coliseum today as part of Maryland gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown’s campaign.

Hillary Clinton spoke to a crowd of about 1,000 students and supporters at Ritchie Coliseum today, urging students to vote and support Democratic gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown.

“You don’t want to wake up the day after this election and wish you could have done more,” Clinton said to the crowd, many of whom had waited in line for hours before the event.

In addition to Brown and running mate Ken Ulman, several other state Democrats gave speeches, including Gov. Martin O’Malley, Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin, and Reps. Steny Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen. 

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Clinton’s speech largely focused  on equal pay for women, which she called “a family issue, a parents’ issue and an economic issue.”

“When women working hard in this state and across the country are paid equally for what they do, they will actually spend that money,” the former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady said. 

Katherine Swanson, vice president of this university’s College Democrats chapter, said Clinton’s emphasis on women’s issues resonated with her.

“The things she said were important and they were worth hearing,” Swanson said. “She is a really good spokesperson for women all over the United States.”

Clinton’s speech was interrupted half a dozen times by hecklers. The first group, challenging Clinton on immigration, held signs reading “Choose family over politics.” 

When President Obama rallied for Brown earlier this month, he also was interrupted by an immigration heckler. Clinton responded by talking about the state’s Dream Act, which passed by referendum in 2012.

“This state has opened the door of opportunity to students who study hard regardless of their parents’ immigration status,” Clinton said. 

College affordability was a central issue in O’Malley’s and Brown’s speeches. O’Malley’s administration has capped annual tuition increases at 3 percent since 2010 after a four-year freeze. Brown has pledged not to raise tuition above O’Malley’s 3 percent cap.

“This is the campaign that’s going to fight to keep college tuition affordable on every college campus,” Brown said. “We’re going to win because we have each and every one of you joining us.”

O’Malley’s appearance was his second on campus in six days, after he played guitar with a student band Saturday. O’Malley praised Clinton, who might become his opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, saying she “served our country very well” as first lady, senator and secretary of state.

University President Wallace Loh was Clinton’s and her husband’s classmate at Yale Law School. As an admissions intern, the former first lady helped recruit Loh to attend Yale, though the two had not spoken in 35 years before Thursday.

“She was going out with Bubba, but no one knew Bubba. But everyone knew Hillary,” Loh recalled. “I mean, she was the star of the class, and Bill — he was just a boy from Hope, Arkansas.” 

The event came on the final day of early voting, with five days until election day. In the first seven days of early voting, 149,710 registered Democrats cast their ballots, while 69,636 Republicans voted, according to the State Board of Elections.

College Park Mayor Andrew Fellows said he supports Brown’s ticket and that he was excited the event was held in College Park.

“All residents of College Park should make sure they vote because it really makes a huge difference, and today’s rally really showed the importance of that,” Fellows said. 

Clinton’s appearance comes as polling numbers have shown a much closer race than originally expected, drawing national attention to the competition. First Lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to rally support for Brown in Baltimore on Monday. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is expected to campaign Sunday for Republican candidate Larry Hogan. 

“It’s a good thing we have a competitive election,” Student Government Association President Patrick Ronk said. “More people are paying attention. If that means Clinton and Obama are coming to show us why Brown is a good candidate, that’s never a bad thing.”

Senior staff writer Ellie Silverman contributed to this report.