By Jessie Burchette
Salisbury Post
Little more than a week after former President Bill Clinton spoke at the Salisbury depot, the Barrack Obama campaign is opening its Rowan County headquarters there.
Clinton stopped at the depot on March 28 on a swing through North Carolina on behalf of his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is in a fierce struggle with Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Over the weekend, volunteers worked to ready the Obama office in suite B at 215 Depot St.
Marcus Ryan, a field organizer for Obama, said the office will serve as the center of a voter registration drive. The deadline for registering to vote is Friday at 5 p.m.
Ryan, who has taken time off from his college studies at Stanford University, said the focus will be getting as many voters registered as possible, regardless of who they support.
“By the end of the day, everybody is enriched,” Ryan said Sunday night. “It helps everybody to be part of the process.”
Volunteers will staff the office from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, beginning today.
The telephone company is expected to install phones in the next few days.
The Obama campaign rented the space from the Historic Salisbury Foundation and expects the office will remain there at least through the May 6 primary.
Emily Perry, one of the volunteers helping furnish and decorate the new headquarters, said it’s a genuine grassroots operation.
And Perry is one of many area Obama supporters who hope the Illinois senator will make a campaign sweep through Rowan before the May 6 primary.
While volunteers for Obama were preparing the county headquarters for opening, Sen. Clinton’s supporters opened a headquarters in Winston-Salem.
North Carolina for Hillary held its grand opening of the Winston-Salem headquarters Sunday afternoon.
Contact Jessie Burchette at 704-797-4254 or jburchette@salisburypost.com.