Bernie Sanders visits Modesto, predicts California victory

Bernie Sanders charged up a Modesto audience Thursday with a promise of victory in next week’s presidential primary.

The Vermont senator, speaking to a capacity crowd of about 2,300 at Modesto Centre Plaza, vowed to help people in poverty, to make public colleges tuition-free and to fight Wall Street influence.

“If the turnout is high, we’re going to win that primary,” said Sanders, who is making a last-ditch effort to wrest the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton. “If the turnout is very high, we’re going to win with big numbers.”

Sanders drew cheers throughout the hourlong speech, which brought national media to a city rarely visited by presidential candidates. He said his campaign – with almost 8 million donors giving an average of $27 apiece – disproves the idea that voters do not care about big-money influence.

“Our job is to tell them that they are dead wrong,” said Sanders, who was introduced by actress Susan Sarandon. “We are going to get involved in every way.”

Clinton, the former secretary of state and first lady, has 2,312 of the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. Sanders has vowed to fight for California, which has the most delegates of any state but usually is ignored by this point in the primary season.

A Marist College survey on Tuesday’s primary showed Clinton at 49 percent and Sanders at 47 percent.

The Modesto rally did not draw the kind of protests that have dogged billionaire Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee, at events in Fresno and elsewhere. A few people violated the rule against banners with a sign about the Animal Liberation Front; they were escorted out of Centre Plaza.

Sarandon, who is joining Sanders on some of his campaign stops, said the candidate would fight “big pharma” over high drug prices and rein in other corporate interests.

“This is the tipping point, and you in California are what is going to make a difference,” she said.

Sanders said 2.2 million people are in U.S. prisons and jails, the highest rate of any country, at a cost of about $80 billion a year. He called for investments in education and jobs and an easing of federal drug policy that equates marijuana with heroin.

“Think about an America where those young people are not rotting in jail cells,” he said.

Sanders estimated a $70 billion annual cost for the free-tuition program and for refinancing of high student loan debts. He proposed a tax on “Wall Street speculation” to pay for both efforts.

Sanders called for a national minimum wage of $15 an hour – the level that California will reach by 2022 – and help for women, who on average make 79 percent of what men earn.

“This has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with sexism,” he said.

Sanders expressed support for same-sex marriage and abortion rights. He called for immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for undocumented people and a drop in deportations that tear families apart.

Sanders said the Affordable Care Act has improved health coverage, but too many people are still uninsured or have high copays and deductibles. He said Social Security could be made solvent for decades by raising the cap on income taxed to fund it.

The crowd heard from singer-songwriter Sarah Lee Guthrie, daughter of Arlo Guthrie and granddaughter of Woody Guthrie. Woody Guthrie sang about fellow Dust Bowl migrants who struggled in California in the 1930s.

“We stand with Bernie Sanders to make a difference for our future,” Sarah Lee Guthrie said.

The candidate also got a rousing speech from Motecuzoma Patrick Sanchez, a political coordinator with the Teamsters union. He is a veteran of the Iraq war who agrees with Sanders that it was a mistake.

“For the first time in my memory, we don’t have to choose between the lesser of two evils,” Sanchez said. “Finally, we can vote our conscience.”

This story was originally published June 2, 2016 at 1:04 PM with the headline "Bernie Sanders visits Modesto, predicts California victory."