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Bernie Sanders Stumps For Hillary Clinton In Duluth

Sanders Rallying Millennial Support For Clinton Campaign

By
Olivia Shalaby/WPR

At least 800 people turned out to hear Bernie Sanders speak Tuesday at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The Vermont senator is in Minnesota and Wisconsin this week rallying support for Hillary Clinton, especially among millennial voters.

More than a third of millennial voters ages 18 to 29 said they would vote for a third-party candidate in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. But 22-year-old Woodville, Wisconsin, native Lexi Otis said the stakes are too high. Otis believes Sanders supporters such as her can maintain his spirit of revolution as part of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

“I think that it’s important that people who were behind that and who are still powered up about the things that (Sanders) was campaigning for to push that onto Clinton’s agenda,” Otis said.

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Sanders urged the crowd to elect Clinton to keep the country moving forward.

“Don’t let anybody tell you that we can’t move forward in a very strong bold and progressive way,” Sanders said. “That is what the establishment wants you to believe.”

Alex Laughlin from South Range, Wisconsin, said he came to hear Sanders speak in person.

“I missed him every time when he was in Duluth or Superior,” Laughlin said.

The 23-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate admits Clinton wasn’t his first choice.

“I will still vote for her now, but not necessarily the person I would vote for originally,” he said.

Laughlin explained that Sanders’ primary campaign made him feel like young people could prompt real change rather than more of the same. Now, Sanders told the crowd it’s their job to elect Clinton.

“But our more important job is to transform this nation and make it into the kind of country you and I know it can become,” Sanders said.

In his remarks, he spoke about affordable education, climate change, tax policies that benefit the middle class and more. Sanders is campaigning Wednesday for Clinton in Green Bay and Madison.