“People have such a fire behind Sanders,” political theory and constitutional democracy junior Rikki Miller said. “Bernie is a different kind of candidate; a once in a lifetime candidate.”

Sander’s rally at EMU was free and open to the public.

Miller said Sanders talked about parts of his normal campaign message like Wall Street, the pay gap between the genders and races, medicare and women’s rights.

What was interesting to Miller, however, was Sanders did not talk about gun ownership.

“Sanders didn’t talk about gun laws, and I think that is because most people in Michigan are already pro gun-ownership," Miller said. 

Miller said she found Sander’s decision to host the rally at EMU instead of another university to be interesting.

Associate professor Folu Ogundimu, an expert in governance and democracy, said Sander’s campaign probably did some internal polling to suggest that there was a sizable population in the area who could be swayed to vote for Bernie.

“Sander’s campaign has been getting a lot of support from the college educated population,” Ogundimu said. “Also, his campaign has to make inroads into the African American communities and the immigrant communities.”

Another community Sanders has to make inroads with, Ogundimu said, is the community of older women from Hillary Clinton’s era.

Clinton has introduced eight more pieces of reproductive health care legislation than Sanders has. Additionally, Sanders didn’t mention Planned Parenthood in his first three debates while Clinton has made it a priority throughout her campaign.

However, Miller said he did talk about women's rights and Planned Parenthood at the rally. 

“At the rally ... Bernie talked about how we shouldn’t defund Planned Parenthood and he talked about how women should have paid maternity leave,” Miller said. 

Miller said she thought Sanders was able to inspire many people from a variety of backgrounds at the rally.

“I met someone who was already retired who told me that he hasn’t felt this way about a candidate since Ralph Nader,” Miller said. “The widespread demographic of the audience shows how many people Sanders can inspire."