“Money doesn’t win. Pre-primary polls don’t win,” said Jason Edwards. “Votes win, and we have the people to go out and get them.”

Edwards was speaking on December 16 outside the Ohio Secretary of State’s office as nearly 6,000 petition signatures were delivered to put presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on the Ohio ballot for the May primary.

Sanders’ prospects for winning the Democratic primary in Ohio are “very good,” said Edwards, a member of Central Ohio Grassroots for Bernie Sanders and a delegate for the national campaign. For the general election, “We’ve got a lot of work to do as volunteers,” he said. “As long as we keep up our grass-roots effort around the country, we’re going to be fine.”

“I’m very confident that Bernie would win the general election,” said Bianca Davis, a graduate student in physics at Ohio State. “We need his policies. We need universal health care, we need maternity and paternity leave, we need infrastructure, and we need to address climate change. At the first Democratic debate, Bernie was the only one who said that climate change is the biggest security threat.”

“I think Hillary’s supporters may be too self-confident,” said Brian Meyers. “I think voter turnout is going to be low without a lot of local issues in Ohio to bring people to the ballot. Bernie supporters are going to show up in numbers.”

A union member who works as a mechanic for COTA, Meyers likes Sanders’ support of organized labor, as well as his proposals to expand social security and provide free higher education. “Being blue collar, I see Bernie as an opportunity for people to vote for their best interests, instead of constantly voting against their interests.”

Rival Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has expressed support for many of Sanders’ proposals, but Meyers is skeptical. “Just a year ago she was for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the XL pipeline,” he said. “Fast forward six months, and she’s completely against them.”