{"id":152728,"date":"2016-05-21T19:18:38","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T01:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=152728"},"modified":"2016-05-22T19:57:49","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T01:57:49","slug":"sanders-energizes-crowd-in-vado-praised-for-visiting-colonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/05\/sanders-energizes-crowd-in-vado-praised-for-visiting-colonia\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanders energizes crowd in Vado, praised for visiting colonia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bernie

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders spoke about issues including child poverty, education and climate change on Saturday in Vado.<\/p><\/div>\n

VADO, N.M. \u2013 People waiting for the start of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders\u2019 rally Saturday afternoon in the playground at the elementary school here were noticeably worn down by the heat and intense sunlight.<\/p>\n

Many arrived at the school several hours before Sanders took the podium. A long line of people snaked into the playground after wrapping around the school property\u2019s outer fence and down the street.<\/p>\n

The mood changed as the Vermont senator came walking hunch-shouldered to the podium with Bruce Springsteen\u2019s \u201cWe Take Care of Our Own\u201d playing in the background.<\/p>\n

The crowd\u2019s energy appeared\u00a0renewed. Rabid cheering and Gregorian chants of \u201cBernie, Bernie!\u201d replaced exhaustion.<\/p>\n

As Sanders laid out his plans if elected president, the crowd\u2019s enthusiasm swelled even more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am running for president because I do not accept the fact that millions of working people in this country are working longer hours for lower wages,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cI\u2019m running for president because it is unacceptable to me that almost 30 percent of the children in New Mexico are living in poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as more people become millionaires and billionaires, Sanders said, the nation\u2019s rate of childhood poverty also increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major nation on earth,\u201d the candidate said. \u201cTogether we\u2019re going to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018We represent the working families of this country\u2019<\/h3>\n

Richard Wright, a former Santa Fean who has lived in Las Cruces for nearly a decade, said he likes Sanders \u201cbecause he is running without a super PAC, he\u2019s down for increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, [protecting] the environment, no interventionist wars, free college tuition, decreasing student debt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wright, who is involved with\u00a0Las Crucens for Being Extremely Realistic Now In Elections (BERNIE)<\/a>, a nonprofit unaffiliated with Sanders\u2019 campaign that had a presence at Saturday\u2019s rally, said he is pleased with how far the group has come \u2013 from \u201ceight people meeting in Milagro\u2019s\u201d to now having a mailing list of some 350 people, 30 active members at any given time, and several committees and working groups responsible for the plethora of Sanders buttons, bumper stickers and T-shirts seen throughout the city.<\/p>\n

Wright said he was shocked when he learned Sanders was bringing his campaign to Vado, a federally designated colonia \u2013 meaning \u201ca community within the mainly rural US-Mexico border region with marginal conditions related to housing and infrastructure,\u201d according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thomas Rowland, an El Pasoan who said he likes \u201ceverything\u201d about Sanders, was similarly mystified at Sanders\u2019 decision to come to Vado, which is located about 15 miles south of Las Cruces along Interstate 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy [did he come]? I don\u2019t know, but I think it\u2019s wonderful!\u201d Rowland said. \u201cI don\u2019t think Hillary would do that and Trump certainly wouldn\u2019t. So I think that shows [Sanders\u2019] integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowland said he supports many of Sanders\u2019 ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need socialized medicine. We need tertiary education to be debt free. We need billionaires out; we can\u2019t have them buy politics anymore,\u201d Rowland said.<\/p>\n

Sanders said he, unlike Clinton, has no super PACS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not want money from Wall Street or Corporate America because we don\u2019t represent Wall Street or Corporate America,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cWe represent the working families of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bernie

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

\u201cI do not want money from Wall Street or Corporate America because we don\u2019t represent Wall Street or Corporate America,\u201d Sanders said Saturday in Vado. \u201cWe represent the working families of this country.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018A place of great need and little representation\u2019<\/h3>\n

Donna Greene, a Las Crucen, called Sanders\u2019 decision to campaign in Vado \u201cfantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a place of great need and little representation, and I just think it\u2019s very special that he would come to a place [of] low population but great need,\u201d Greene said.<\/p>\n

In rural areas such as Vado, amenities like clean water, effective wastewater treatment facilities, solid roads and bridges, and reliable and affordable Internet and phone connectivity are difficult to come by, Sanders said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is that in America, we can create up to 13 million good-paying jobs by rebuilding our infrastructure, making our country stronger,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cThat is exactly what we should be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabriela Molina and Maggie Johnson, from El Paso and Las Cruces respectively, also praised Sanders\u2019 decision to come to Vado.<\/p>\n

\u201cBernie\u2019s about the small people,\u201d Molina said.<\/p>\n

Johnson said she has greater respect for politicians who come \u201cdoor to door\u201d when they try to get to know potential voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to go to Los Angeles or New York, but it\u2019s another thing to go to the small towns that may not necessarily have a voice,\u201d Johnson said, \u201cespecially in big politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other candidates show up<\/h3>\n

Merrie Lee Soules, a Democrat running for New Mexico\u2019s 2nd Congressional District seat currently held by Republican Steve Pearce, attended the rally \u2013 seeming to employ the campaign tactics Johnson said she admires.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the voter turnout going down and down and down, people tell me they think government is for sale and their vote doesn\u2019t count \u2013 and I think that\u2019s tragic,\u201d Soules said. \u201cSo I\u2019m running to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Las Crucen, Soules said she attended the rally because \u201chistory is being made\u201d by Sanders\u2019 visit to Vado.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy basic premise is, anybody who\u2019s voting for Bernie, I want their vote,\u201d she said. \u201cI think these are my people and they\u2019re fired up about the same thing I am: taking democracy back to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her campaign, like Sanders\u2019, is focusing on economic prosperity \u2013 in her case for Southern New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything else becomes possible when people have the opportunity for good work in the place they love and call home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Current Do\u00f1a Ana County District Attorney Mark D\u2019Antonio, who\u2019s facing James Dickens in the June 7 Democratic primary, also attended the event. He carried a sign with him much of the time that read, \u201cA Future to Believe In \u2013 Bernie 2016.\u201d He also wore T-Shirt advertising his own campaign for re-election.<\/p>\n

\"Bernie

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

A long line of people waiting to see Bernie Sanders speak at Vado Elementary School snaked into the playground after wrapping around the school property\u2019s outer fence and down the street.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018A moral obligation\u2019<\/h3>\n

Other Sanders supporters who attended the rally included representatives of\u00a0the National Nurses Organizing Committee of Texas (NNOCT), whose parent organization, the National Nurses Union (NNU), \u201ccame out pretty early in support of Sanders,\u201d said NNOCT spokeswoman Sylvia Searfoss.<\/p>\n

Among the issues Sanders supports that the NNU values are health-care reform, getting big money out of politics \u2013 \u201cbecause nothing else is going to change until that happens\u201d \u2013 and the climate \u201ccrisis,\u201d Searfoss said.<\/p>\n

Searfoss was especially vocal about the last issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m old enough to remember the \u201870s. We let go of climate (issues), and we\u2019re not going to do that again,\u201d she said, adding that it\u2019s \u201cvery, very important to keep the issues alive\u201d \u2013 and she believes Sanders would do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change is real,\u201d Sanders told the crowd. \u201cYou see that everyday. And the climate change is caused by human activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

This generation, Sanders said, has \u201ca moral obligation\u201d to leave future generations a planet that is \u201chealthy and habitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NNOCT has a membership of four hospitals, totaling about 1,500 nurses, while nationwide more than 185,000 nurses are union members, Searfoss said.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are in this together\u2019<\/h3>\n

An estimated 3,420 people attended Saturday\u2019s rally in Vado, according to KVIA-TV in El Paso<\/a>. The Las Cruces Sun-News estimated the crowd at near 5,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this rally today speaks volumes about the core values of Bernie Sanders and shows that he cares deeply about the needs of all of our country\u2019s citizens, including underrepresented minority communities all over New Mexico and the Southwest,\u201d said Sarah Weidmeyer, a Las Crucen who spoke to the rally audience before Sanders came on.<\/p>\n

Weidmeyer said she supports Sanders because of his views on creating tuition-free public colleges and universities, as well as easing the burden of current student loan debts.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike other candidates \u2013 Democrats and Republicans alike \u2013 Bernie Sanders does not put profit over people, does not put corporations over communities,\u201d Weidmeyer said.<\/p>\n

In the Democratic nomination race, Sanders has trailed Hillary Clinton in the number of pledged delegates from the start, despite having won a number of states recently. That has led many Sanders supporters in Weidmeyer\u2019s life to \u201cthink that there is no point in voting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But she urged them to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vote is our voice, and when enough voices come together, we cannot be silenced,\u201d she said. \u201cWho needs Bernie Sanders more than New Mexico, with the highest child poverty rates and lowest graduation rates in the country? Who could benefit more from radical social reform?\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Burnside also spoke before Sanders took the podium. Having served five years in the U.S. Marines, Burnside said he has seen fellow veterans used as \u201cprops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Bernie Sanders talks about veterans, he talks about getting us the respect and help that we\u2019ve earned,\u201d Burnside said.<\/p>\n

Sanders was fighting for equal rights for all people regardless of sexual orientation, gender or ethnicity, Burnside said, \u201cbefore it was popular.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders and his message were popular with the crowd in Vado. As the audience started its \u201cBernie, Bernie!\u201d chant for the umpteenth time, Sanders stopped them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got news for you: It ain\u2019t just Bernie. It\u2019s all of us; we\u2019re in this together,\u201d he said. \u201cIf anybody here thinks that Bernie alone is going to be able to take on Wall Street and corporate greed and the drug companies and the corporate media, you are mistaken. We are in this together, brothers and sisters!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

Billy Huntsman \/ NMPolitics.net<\/h6>
<\/i> permalink<\/a><\/h6>

T-shirts a vendor was selling outside Bernie Sanders' rally in Vado on Saturday.<\/p><\/div>

Billy Huntsman \/ NMPolitics.net<\/h6>
<\/i> permalink<\/a><\/h6>

Buttons a vendor was selling outside Bernie Sanders' rally in Vado on Saturday.<\/p><\/div>

Billy Huntsman \/ NMPolitics.net<\/h6>
<\/i> permalink<\/a><\/h6>

People involved with the group Las Cruces for BERNIE set up a table outside Sanders' rally in Vado on Saturday.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of people from the Borderlands showed up to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ rally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2959,"featured_media":152734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[708,115,146,226,116],"class_list":["post-152728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-election","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-poverty","tag-presidential-race","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}