Over 3,300 in Onalaska to see Bernie Sanders

300 were in La Crosse to see Hillary Clinton

ONALASKA, Wis. — He came out to chants of “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie.”

A raucous crowd of 3,321 packed into the OmniCenter with some waiting hours in line to see Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders as Wisconsin will head to the polls for the primary on April 5.

Sanders caps off a three-day run of presidential candidates to the area. Around 200 came to see John Kasich in West Salem, Wis., on Monday, while about 300 were in La Crosse to see Sanders’ rival, Hillary Clinton on Tuesday.

During his speech, Sanders hit on countless topics. He railed against the gap between rich and poor in the nation, with boos reigning out as he announced the top one tenth of one percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.

“Progressives and Democrats win elections when people are excited, energized and mobilized, as witnessed by this turnout tonight,” Sanders said. The day before, 300 people came to see his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton at La Crosse’s Western Technical College. “There is no debate about which democratic candidate has the energy and the momentum.”

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Just about everything during Sanders one-hour speech was followed by cheers – aside from that one-tenth-of-one-percent comment. The 74-year-old was introduced by Ho-Chunk Nation president Wilfrid Cleveland.

Sanders addressed key issues like the broken criminal justice system, that has put more people in jail than any other country in the world, and he spoke of heroin and opiate addiction, which has plagued La Crosse.

“Substance abuse and addiction must be treated as a health issue, not a criminal issue,” said Sanders, who is now leading Clinton in some of the latest polls. “That means we need a revolution in mental health treatment in this country.”

Another topic Sanders touched on, that was met with boos from the crowd, was the negative impact that national trade agreements has on places like Wisconsin.

“Corporate America, the people who wrote these trade agreements, prefers to shut down in this country, move abroad, pay people pennies an hour and bring their products back into this country,” Sanders said.

He went on to list multiple Wisconsin companies, including General Motors and Chrysler, that have left the state to pay lesser wages to employees.

Sanders ended the speech by saying that if everyone stands together against the status quo, radical change can occur.