Marcella Corona

mcorona@rgj.com

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders rallied Reno supporters one last time before the Democratic caucus on Saturday, boosting his plans for free education, bettering climate change and pushing for health care and immigration reform.

“Tomorrow in the Nevada caucus you have a chance to make history,” Sanders told a cheering crowd on Friday. “Please come out, and please bring your friends and family, and let’s go vote together.”

Hundreds of supporters stood behind Sanders at the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks in hopes that he conquers the Nevada caucus and wins the votes over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The large crowd wrapped around the building early Friday afternoon.

“I was kind of wondering whether or not it would be a virtual tie between him and Hillary, but looking at the lines outside, I think we’re going to be a landslide,” said Ryan Meza, 21, a University of Nevada, Reno computer science student.

The United States won’t be doing business as usual if Sanders wins, Meza said.

“It’s very important to have an authentic president, who’s basically going to delineate everything and bring robust plans for the future,” he said.

Darrella McGuire, 57, of Sparks said she’s voting for Sanders because he supports nurses’ values, she said. His push for Medicare for all and a free college tuition also caught her attention.

“There’s just so many reasons,” McGuire said. “I think he’s just the best candidate, and he will be working for the people.

“He says ‘us’ and not ‘me,’” she said. “Instead of big companies buying his campaign, he gets private donors, and I think that says a lot about his integrity.”

Joshua Holle, 34, took his 8-year-old son, Loki, out of school to teach him about democracy, he said.

“I believe democracy … should be representative of all the people in the country for which it stands,” Holle said.

Holle believes money has too much of an influence on politics, he said.

“There’s a direct correlation between the amounts of money that’s spent by lobbyists on a bill before it passes,” Holle said. “But there’s no correlation between the number of people in this country that support a bill and whether it passes.”

“I think that Bernie Sanders is the one candidate who’s really making an effort to take the money back out of politics and make it more about the people,” he said.

Holle and his son have been canvassing all around Reno for weeks, he said.

“I have just been blown away by the number of Bernie supporters that I’ve run into,” he said. “I think the most important thing people can do is talk to one another. Talk to their neighbors, talk to their friends, talk to their families.”

Marcella Corona covers breaking news for the Reno Gazette-Journal. Contact her at 775-788-6340, online at mcorona@rgj.com or follow her on Twitter at @Marcella_Anahi or on Facebook at Facebook.com/Marcella.Anahi.