On an otherwise gloomy weather day, supporters of presidential candidates Bernie Sanders (D) and Ted Cruz (R) brought a lively atmosphere to parts of Springfield Saturday.
It was the first visit of any presidential contender ahead of Tuesday’s primary in Missouri, one of the five states holding elections that day. Former President Bill Clinton campaigned on behalf of his wife Hillary in Springfield Friday.
“The whole country thinks Missouri is a pretty conservative state,” Sanders told the crowd inside Missouri State’s JQH Area. “Why don’t you all surprise them on Tuesday?”
Sanders also implored supporters to do their part to help him defeat his opponent Hillary Clinton, for whom a poll released Friday names her the Democratic front-runner in the Show-Me State.
During his roughly 40-minute speech, the Vermont senator earned large cheers and chants while speaking on job security, minimum wage issues, the criminal justice system, and free-tuition at public colleges.
According to Sanders national campaign crew, about 4,800 people attended the rally at JQH Arena.
Mark Maxey, a volunteer for the Sanders’ campaign, drove four hours from Oklahoma City to the rally.
“He (Bernie Sanders) is probably the only genuine human candidate out of all the parties that’s run. What he is talking about strikes to the heart of millions of people across this nation. We have lost touch with the humanness and the fact that it is the people that make up America, not the businesses, not the lobbyists that get the money,” said Maxey.
Christian Nelson, 19, a sophomore nursing major at Ozarks Technical Community College, said he likes Sanders because he is the only candidate that has liberal policies.
With a great amount of medical debt in the family, healthcare policy is Nelson’s primary concern.
“We need to get caught up with the rest of the world,” Nelson said. “There’s something wrong when you get sick you can get in extreme debt because of it. Bernie wants to expand Medicaid, the system that we already have for everyone, like every single other major industrialized country does.”
Besides healthcare, college tuition fee is another concern among Sanders’ supporters.
Gabriel Wallace, a freshman at MSU, thinks Sanders is progressive, and will push America into the 21st century. Among Sanders’ policies, making college tuition fee free is what attracts Wallace the most.
“Time and time again, education proves to be one of the highest returns on an investment for a country,” Wallace said. "Pushing forward education for people, you can never be wrong investing in that.”
On the other side of the town at Evangel University, supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz filled the lower bowl and balcony of Spence Chapel auditorium. The facility seats approximately 2,200 people.
The night started with a prayer. The crowd chanted “Tested, Trusted, Truth, Cruz” before he took stage.
Cruz said his focus is jobs, freedom, and security.
"If you want to see jobs explode, you lift the boot off the back of the neck of small businesses," Cruz said.
Elijah Parker of Branson has been struggling with finding a full-time job. As a Cruz supporter, Parker said he likes that Cruz is planning to restore the economy, “and he has actual plans for that.”
Hank Parker of Ozark and Marquise Davis, a senior of Kickapoo High School, both firm believers in religious freedom, support Cruz because of his stand on the issue.
“Let me make it very, very clear to the men and women of Missouri,” Cruz said. “I will not compromise your way to religious liberty.”
With that statement came long-lasting cheers and applause from the crowd before Cruz could speak again.
Cruz also repeated many of his top campaign promises, including abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, passing a flat federal income tax, and repeal Obama care.
At the end of his speech, Cruz implored every attending supporter to bring nine more voters on Tuesday, including the underage voters.
"Do you know that if you get 10 other people to come out and vote on Tuesday, you would've voted 10 times before you turn 18," Cruz pleaded. "That's how we win! We stand together... If everyone here simply brings nine other people to vote on Tuesday, you are looking at over 30,000 more votes in the state of Missouri representing..."
The rest of the sentence drowned in cheers.
The polls are open from 6 am to 7 pm Tuesday in Missouri. The states of Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and Ohio will also hold primaries that day. KSMU and NPR News will provide live election results from 7 -10 p.m.
Read past coverage from KSMU on the Tuesday primaries here.