BOSTON — Bernie Sanders rallied 10,000 supporters in historic Boston Common Saturday afternoon, invading Senator Elizabeth Warren’s home state just days before Super Tuesday, but not mentioning the Massachusetts rival by name.
“If we have the largest voter turnout in the history of the Massachusetts primary on Tuesday… We can win here. We can win the Democratic nomination, we can defeat Donald Trump, and we can transform this country,” Sanders told the crowd.
The Vermont senator was met with erupting cheers and chants of his campaign slogan for 2020: “Not me. Us.” Later, a sea of people waving “Bernie” signs and chanting his name followed Sander’s exit from the rally, which was located mere miles from Warren’s home in Cambridge and near the campus of Harvard University.
Several Massachusetts elected officials who’ve endorsed Sanders spoke before he took the stage, including Massachusetts U.S. Rep. Nika Elugardo, a Democrat.
“Bernie can win Massachusetts because it’s been said Massachusetts is made for revolutions,” Elugardo said. Massachusetts is one of 14 states voting on March 3’s “Super Tuesday.”
A spokesman for Warren’s campaign this week declined to comment about Sanders’ Massachusetts operation, but sent a list of 36 state officials who have not only endorsed Warren but also campaigned on her behalf in Massachusetts in the year she’s been running for president. On Friday, thousands also turned out to see Sanders at a rally in Springfield, Mass.
A 23-year-old retail worker, Amber Racette, drove from her home in Cape Cod to Boston for Saturday’s rally. She voted for Sanders in 2016 and plans to vote for him on Tuesday.
“He’s had the same message for a very long time and I feel more trusting of that. I think he has a very good chance of winning in this state,” Racette said.
While Sanders made no mention of Warren in his speech, some supporters still had Senator Warren on their mind. Brittany Kenney, 26, said she planned on voting for Warren in the Rhode Island primary on April 28, but changed her mind because she trusted Bernie “a little more.”
Other supporters expressed skepticism of the rest of the Democratic presidential candidates, including Warren. Colette Berard, 40, said Sanders knows how to make real change happen. She voted for Sanders in 2016 and plans to vote for him again in the Massachusetts primary. Berard said she respects Warren, but every candidate aside from Sanders is willing to work within the establishment.
“Unlike the other Democratic candidates in the race, he doesn’t want to work within the system and he recognizes it needs to be rebuilt,” the Boston public school teacher said. “As Bernie put it himself today, any kind of transformational movement comes from a movement of people.”
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