Shippensburg University students joined thousands of devout supporters at two national campaign rallies last week, where two presidential candidates called on Pennsylvanians for their vote in today’s primary.
Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders made respective campaign stops in Harrisburg and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, vying with their rivals to win the Keystone State.
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton also stopped in Harrisburg just hours before Trump spoke at the Farm Show Complex. Clinton gave a familiar stump speech on behalf of his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
SU students turned out at each event, showing their support for their candidate of choice.
Trump spoke to more than 3,000 people on Thursday, who waited in line for hours to hear the Republican frontrunner speak about jobs, immigration and winning.
“We are going to win so much some of you folks won’t be able to take it,” Trump said, to a roaring crowd. He won a decisive victory in New York on April 19 against rivals John Kasich and Ted Cruz. Trump said he expects to replicate that win in Pennsylvania.
Sanders, who lost to Hillary by double digits in New York, stuck to his familiar campaign issues of inequality, education and campaign finance reform.
“Government ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people’ does not mean billionaires, Wall Street and the fossil fuel industry and corporate interests pouring huge sums of money into super PACS,” Sanders said, referencing the Gettysburg Address. His supporters, already acquainted with his positions, brought signs reading, “I am the 99 percent.”
“He’s been an advocate for human rights as long as he has been [in politics],” said Alexa DeFrancesco, a junior at SU. DeFrancesco and future SU student Lillie Hawkins came to the Sanders town hall-style event to hear from Sanders first-hand.
They plan on voting for Sanders today, but said they are not sure he can beat Hillary.
“I heard he’s not doing well, but we’ll see,” DeFrancesco said. Hillary leads Sanders by about 15 percent of the vote, according to Real Clear Politics average of recent polls.
The Clinton campaign had Bill speak in the Keystone Building across the street from Pennsylvania’s Capitol Building on Friday around noon. The event was set up with dozens of chairs instead of Trump and Sander’s thousands of bleacher seats.
Bill gave a typical stump speech, supporting Hillary’s qualifications for president, said Kelly Summerford, a former city councilperson who saw Bill speak on several occasions. Summerford supports Hillary over Sanders because of her vast experience, he said. Though Summerford agrees with virtually every position Sanders has, he said the Vermont senator will probably not be able to get his idealistic goals passed in Congress.
At Gettysburg College’s gymnasium Sanders told more than 2,000 people, who were mostly students, that his goal is to find where he and Congress can come together to agree on the issues, and then go from there.
Trump touted his experience as a businessman to explain how he can get better trade deals with China and convince Mexico to pay for a wall that will stretch across the U.S.’s southern border.
“That’s one of the easiest negotiations I’ve seen,” Trump said about the wall. “I will have the most gorgeous wall you have ever seen.”
Trump’s energized crowd spilled out of the Farm Show Complex and were greeted by more than a hundred anti-Trump protestors with signs and flags. Dozens of Pennsylvania State Police troopers and local police officers kept the two groups at bay, standing in the middle of a volley of chants, insults and obscenities.
During Trump’s rally, police escorted at least six people out of the arena, interrupting Trump frequently.
Sander’s low-key event was designed to be an educational opportunity, said a Gettysburg College official. But regardless of the event, the Sanders, Clinton and Trump campaigns brought out thousands of Pennsylvanians, including numerous SU students, to vote today.
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