Morgantown ‘Feels the Bern’ at Sanders rally

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Before more than 3,000 people on Morgantown’s waterfront, Bernie Sanders, democratic presidential candidate, spent significant time with an energetic and responsive audience.

“I’ve seen him so many times on the news. I believe so much in what he says. I knew he’d be saying the same things over, but to see him in person is just a different experience,” expressed David Tennant, Fairview resident and North Marion High School coach.

The Vermont senator’s visit to Morgantown was his third and final stop in West Virginia Thursday following a focused discussion in McDowell County on poverty.

For many who stood in a line that wrapped the hotel and stretched down the Monongahela River’s rail trail, they came to hear about Sanders’ social policy suggestions and beliefs.

“In my mind he’s very much like a European politician for the community, someone who is capable of leading others in a program to support all of our citizens rather than a few,” shared Larry Schwab, a Morgantown resident, doctor and Vietnam veteran.

Bruce Mitchell, II, a Kent State graduate and WVU doctorial student, was one of many students in the audience curious about Sanders’ free and affordable college tuition rhetoric.

“There are still some more specifics and nuances that we would have to see how it would actually play out and whether or not his ideas would hold up in legislation in terms of actually being passed to make things happen,” Mitchell commented.

With five days to go before the May 10 primary election, there were many among the rally attendees still looking for a candidate to earn their vote.

“You know, you have to take it all with a grain of salt, but I feel like it’s the first time I’ve heard a candidate that is speaking to a lot of things I find to be important for me and my family,” shared Katharine Dubansky, a Garrett County, MD mother who brought 4 of her children to see and hear Sanders speak.

While Sanders’ ideas on affordable education, equal pay and addiction treatment, to name a few, garnered echoing cheers, funding the principles upon which his campaign is based, is still a topic for discussion.

Tennant, looking for that one thing to tip his vote in Sanders’ corner, left confident in the revolution the presidential candidate is pushing.

“It’s going to be the people that don’t pay taxes. It’s going to be the corporations that have ridden along so far that have not had to pay the taxes, we have subsidized them, now they need to subsidize us,” he said.

Sanders took the stage in Morgantown shortly before 8 p.m. and spoke for more than an hour.