Tufts students join crowd of 20,000 at Bernie Sanders rally

Approximately 100 Tufts students joined over 20,000 people at the rally for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in Boston last Saturday.

Tufts for Bernie and Tufts Democratsorganized a meet-up for students to travel as a group to the rally, which was held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, according to Amy Kao, the event organizer from Tufts for Bernie.

"I'm really excited; it's really surreal," Kao, a senior, said. "I knew that the rain would kind of dampen the turnout...[but the meet-up] was pretty crowded."

Tufts students gathered at the Mayer Campus Center at 3 p.m. to travel to the event and arrived shortly after the rally's doors opened at 5 p.m. for the scheduled 6 p.m. start.

The rally went into overflow space, as crowds of people who were unable to fit inside the Center gathered outside on the lawn to watch the candidate speak on a projected screen. According to the Boston Globe, the rally was "the largest...for a presidential primary candidate in recent Massachusetts history, topping [the] 10,000 people drawn to Boston Common eight years ago by Barack Obama."

Grant Fox, who works on public relations for Tufts for Bernie, said he was excited by the turnout for the event, both by the number of people who showed up for the meet-up and the number of students who showed up on their own.

"I'm really impressed for Tufts, students-wise, because it's so easy to be apathetic when there's so many people attending on Facebook and stuff," Fox, a junior, said. "[Tufts for Bernie President Diane Alexander] saw people that didn't even come to our event show up here, so it's cool to see people taking initiative."

At the rally, Sanders was introduced by local speakers Karen Higgins, co-president of National Nurses United; Jimmy O’Brien, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union; Jillian Brownsford, a nursing student at UMass-Boston; and Bill McKibben, an environmental author and journalist.

"Bernie Sanders is the president for the 99 percent," Higgins told the cheering crowd.

O'Brien spoke about Sanders' populist ideals, including his campaign against the billionaire class.

"Bernie understands that we are sick and tired of being sick and tired," he said.

When Sanders took the stage, he spoke about a variety of issues, including his platform calling for free tuition at public colleges, his stance on climate change and his pledge to fight racism and mass incarceration. He also emphasized the fact that wealth inequality is a huge problem in the United States.

"No president of the United States, not Bernie Sanders or anyone else, can do what has to be done to rebuild the crumbling middle class in this country unless we have a political revolution," he said. “As your senator Elizabeth Warren reminds us, this is a rigged economy ... Wages in America are just too damn low."

Sanders added that he wants his campaign to be funded by the people, for the people, not by the "billionaire class" and not by huge political action committees (PACs).

"Let me be as clear as I can be: I don't have a Super PAC. I don't want a Super PAC. And I don't need a Super PAC," he said to loud applause.

Senior Luke Sherman, who attended the rally with Tufts, said he thought that Sanders did a good job at the event.

"I thought it was very well-attended, and Bernie's speech was very inspirational," Sherman said. "I also think that Bernie did a great job of addressing a number of issues that the progressive community cares about."

Fox explained that he and three other students formed Tufts for Bernie over the summer. The group's core board of eight people now help manage around 250 to 300 students on their e-list.

"It's cool, [Sanders is] really big with college students," Fox said. "The whole college students for Bernie network is huge."

Fox said that the interest on the Tufts campus for Sanders over Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton was not something that he had anticipated.

"Last year, at the end of the semester, everybody was for Hillary," he said. "Or well everybody that was out was for Hillary, so I don't know, it's cool to see people coming out for Bernie, and also I think Bernie really speaks to the college crowd more so than Hillary does just in terms of the issues that he's really vocal about."

Kao also said she is excited about the support for Sanders on campus but said many people she knows are still in support of Clinton.

"I'm really excited, but...I have to kind of keep it measured because I know that I live in a liberal bubble," she said. "Most of my friends...don't not support Bernie, they just want to be realistic [since] they think Hillary will win."

The visible support for Sanders both on campus and at the rally were not surprising, Sherman said.

"I think that it makes sense, and I think that younger people in particular are much more enchanted with Bernie's challenge to the status quo," he said. "They're critical of Hillary's ties to Wall Street and major corporations and big business. And they see in Bernie someone who can challenge the powers to be."

Fox said that in addition to organizing the event for Tufts students to go to Sanders' Boston rally, Tufts for Bernie will also be holding special events with other college student organizations supporting Sanders, running phone banks for him every Wednesday and planning canvassing trips.

"We're going to start doing local canvassing in Medford," Fox said. "We have some trips for New Hampshire planned, since New Hampshire is obviously more important than Massachusetts."

Tufts for Bernie will also be holding one campus-wide event this semester, which, according to Fox, will possibly be a dance or a show in support of Sanders.

Kao added that the group wants to reach out to non-millennials and people outside the age range for students, primarily by making sure they are registered to vote.

"It's kind of a lot, but it's two parts: ... it's getting people involved in the Tufts community and then getting them to go do stuff," Kao said.

Fox said that the Sanders campaign is the first one he has volunteered for, so he wants to fully invest himself in it.

"Bernie's message really resonates with me above anybody else's just because he's so authentic," he said. "For someone who's so young and getting involved in politics, you don't have to worry about Bernie as a candidate and his whole voting record because what he's been doing since the '80s when he became mayor is what he's doing now."

Kao, who used to be a part of Tufts Divest, said she has done a lot of environmental work and thinks it's an important issue for this campaign.

"I think supporting someone that I really care about and someone that will actually act on climate change is really important to me," she said.

Fox said he believes the Vermont senator will win the Democratic presidential nomination.

"I think he's on track for it. I'm not going to say 100 percent yeah, but I think he's making a really good pace. He's doing all the right things, or most of the right things," Fox said. "He had an amazing summer -- he has a ton of momentum going into the fall."

Sherman was less optimistic and said that Clinton is still the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic presidential candidacy.

"I think the odds are against him," he said.

Despite this, Sherman said he is still excited about Sanders' chances in the primary.

"I love Bernie," he said. "I hope he wins and I'll be doing all that I can to make that happen."