Bernie Sanders, one of the most popular politicians in the United States, held his own announcement rally in Grand Park in Los Angeles for the first time since he announced his run for president earlier this year on March 23.
Many democratic politicians know that California is going to be a key battleground to winning the Democratic primaries, so they frequently rally in the blue state.
As the 2020 race for the presidency starts to heat up, many Democrat and Republican voters look to find their best choice in the elections.
People, from couples with young children to older men and women from the Los Angeles community came out to support Sen. Sanders at the rally.
William Dore, an older man and attendee of the rally, advocated for the legalization of marijuana.
“He believes everything I believe, free education, free medical and that’s the way it should be. It’s not just the rich get to go to school and the poor have to go to work,” Dore said.
For the children that attended the rally with their parents, most were covered head to toe in Sanders’ merchandise; they yelled and screamed alongside their parents for the promises that Sen. Sanders will do what he hoped to accomplish. Free college, Medicare for all and expanding social security are just some of his goals once in office.
“I look at it as a total medicine and people who are against it, the big companies didn’t want to see it because they thought people would get lethargic and wouldn’t work hard. But they’ll give any of them coffee for free and keep em wound up …. They haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the medical part.” said Dore.
There were a number of speakers in support of Sanders, including California representative Ro Khanna of the 17th congressional district, which covers a majority of the east San Francisco bay area. Khanna agreed about many of the policy ideas that Sen. Sanders had, with the largest idea being a Medicare for all system.
“We seek to build America up, not others down,” Khanna said.
Nina Turner, former senator of Ohio, also spoke about similar policy ideas of Sen. Sanders at the rally. Turner spoke about the political revolution that needs to take place within the Sanders campaign and how she wanted America be a “good place for all of us to live.” She went on to say “we will finish what we started in 2016.”
As soon as Sanders was seen by the crowd and reached the podium, the crowd of thousands erupted into a huge chant of “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” In a quick response to the crowd, “No, no, no it is not me, it is us,” with his speech focused on his policies.
Sen. Bernie Sanders started speaking by delivering a usual blow to the Trump Presidency.
“Donald Trump is an embarrassment to the United States,” Sen. Sanders said as one of the opening lines to his campaign speech, “It’s a fact.”
These comments met with jeers and loud boos from the crowd at the mention of the president’s name.
Sanders went on to continue to talk about his promise to tax the rich more and how he hopes to help the people by providing free healthcare to all.
As he was talking about healthcare, an older member of the audience collapsed and fainted in the back of the crowd, EMS rushed to help her and she was taken away.
But what really drives the younger crowds to vote and support Sen. Sanders is his promise for free college. This single promise he’s kept mentioning since he started campaigning in 2016 is what has kept millennials and the mostly younger voter population supporting him.
“We’re going to make public colleges free,… I want everybody in this country to have a higher education,” Sanders promised to the cheering crowd below.
Alongside his promise for free college, another one of his promises was to increase student debt forgiveness, a contrast to Trump’s plans to remove debt forgiveness from the 2019 budget for the U.S.
These announcements left the mostly young crowd cheering.
Sen. Sanders also made some other promises geared at the older population of the U.S., with plans to increase Social Security and his plan to make healthcare free.
“We’re not going to cut Social Security, we’re going to increase Social Security,” Sen. Sanders said over the loud crowd.
The rally was a possible look into the 2020 Democratic primary election cycle, as a win in California will be a key part for any of the Democratic candidates.
