Brittany Hach | Contributing Writer

On Sunday, September 27, a group of 14 Buena Vista University students met at the Victory Bell on campus and headed to Fort Dodge to see Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders.

Sanders was part of the annual Webster County Democrats pork chop dinner fundraiser, held at the Webster County Fairgrounds.

The BVU students arrived at the event just in time to check in, make name tags, and receive their meal tickets. Junior Katelyn Brinkerhoff was part of the group that attended.

“I haven’t actually kept up with this presidential election as much as usual, but for as much as I have been looking into candidates, Bernie Sanders has been the one that has drawn me in the most, based on his views and future goals he has for America,” Brinkerhoff said.

Junior Kamron Warden also attended and is a committed Sanders supporter.

“I had to go see Bernie Sanders for two reasons. We have to show Bernie we support him. The more support he has, the better his campaign will run. Secondly, I wanted to hear him speak. A man with such a grand vision, I knew his speech would be something I couldn’t miss,” Warden said. “I needed to see him in action.”

After the meal, Sanders did indeed speak. He began, “There is no one person that can solve all of the problems this country has; not me or any other candidate, it’s when millions of people come together.”

Sanders then went on to discuss his plans for the issues facing this country. They ranged from climate control, to unemployment, to the disappearing middle class.

“Our country has the highest number of people in prison than any other country in the world,” he said. “I want our country to be the highest educated, not the highest number in prison. We need to spend more money in youth education and jobs, and less on incarceration and prison. We need to be hiring teachers, not firing teachers!”

Sanders also advocated for creating free college tuition.

“In order to become the highest educated country, all students that succeed and do well in high school should have the opportunity to go to college no matter what their family income is,” Sanders said.

This message drew big applause from the BVU contingent.

“His focus on the importance of education was very inspiring to me,” Brinkerhoff said. “There are a lot of people that cannot afford school and even some that are in school who have no way to pay for it without enormous loans.”

Sanders concluded his speech with a little history.

“American people came together in WWII and won a war against two different countries in two and a half years. If we can do that, there is no doubt in my mind that America can’t come together now to face the wars in own our country. This is the political revolution we need.”

Junior Kaelee Matney was impressed by the event.

“Walking in, I thought it was one of the smaller campaign speeches that I have been to,” Matney said, “but his speech involved everyone in the audience and I liked that.”

Warden felt energized by the event.

“The best word I could use to describe the event is inspirational, I did not expect to be so moved,” he said. “This election should be huge. We have a woman polling in the top two in both parties, Clinton and Fiorina. You then have two brutally honest, almost extreme runners, Sanders and Trump, who are putting everything on the table. Needless to say, it’s an exciting election.”

Photos by Brittany Hach