Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders brought his campaign to Montgomery today, telling a crowd that filled Mt. Zion AME Zion Church in Montgomery that what he describes as a movement to transform the country can work with their help.

Sanders touted his support for Medicare for all, boosting the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, tuition-free college education, raising taxes on corporations, reforming the criminal justice system to be fairer to the poor and minorities, and making the country a global leader in addressing climate change, among other issues.

He said a theme for his campaign is “us, not me” and then told the crowd what he meant.

“What it means is we have got to become a nation where you care about my four kids and my seven grandchildren and I care about you and your family,” Sanders said.

It was the second day of a campaign swing through Alabama for the independent senator from Vermont, who had appeared in Birmingham on Sunday.

Sanders is back in the presidential race after posing the most serious challenge to eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. This year, he’s one of more than 20 candidates for the Democratic nomination.

The audience at the church today interrupted Sanders regularly with applause and cheers and briefly broke into a chant of “Bernie, Bernie” when he finished his remarks.

Abraham White of Opelika said the senator echoed many of his own thoughts and inspired him. White said he believes the ideas that Sanders has built his campaigns on could become reality.

”I think it will take a lot of people coming together. But it’s definitely something that’s possible. He gave me hope today. He really did," White said.

Gene Donney of Montgomery, a volunteer in the Sanders campaign, said the senator did a good job of sticking to his message today, one that the 2016 campaign indicates will connect with Democratic voters.

“If nothing else, he is extremely consistent,” Donney said. “And I think the big sweep of what he has always stood for, whether it needs to happen in exactly the way or exactly the proportions that he describes, I don’t know. But I do know that that direction has to transpire for this country to get going and be better off than what it is now.”

Donney said Sanders stands out from the crowd of Democratic candidates even though he could be eclipsed initially by former Vice President Joe Biden.

“I think the people who are committed to Bernie are very committed to Bernie,” Donney said. “And we’ll see if the same is true of Biden.”

Before appearing at the church today, Sanders visited historical sites from the civil rights movement in Lowndes and Montgomery counties. He visited the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, the memorial to lynching victims established by the Equal Justice Initiative last year.

Sanders said all Americans should have access to affordable health care and prescription drugs. He called for incentives to recruit doctors to work in underserved areas and expansions of community health care programs.

“I want everybody in this country to have access to a doctor in the communities that they live," Sanders said.

He called for improvements to K-12 education and better pay for teachers.

“We have teachers in this country, all over the country, who are taking money out of their own limited paychecks to buy classroom supplies. How stupid is that?” Sanders said.

He promised to push to more than double the federal minimum wage, from $7.25 to $15 per hour.

“It’s not too much to ask in the wealthiest country in the history of the world that if you work 40 hours a week you do not have to live in poverty," Sanders said.