“It’s gotten out of hand,” she said laughing. “It’s been such a positive response. It’s a little overwhelming, but it’s totally worth it.”
The page now has between 1,700 and 1,800 members and has inspired many smaller local groups to begin supporting the Democratic presidential candidate on social media.
Martlage said Sen. Sanders, I-Vermont, is the only presidential candidate who has ever inspired her to campaign in this way. Along with other community members, she has worked to organize several meetings in support of Sanders. On Tuesday night, she said they had one of their largest ones yet.
A diverse crowd of attendees filled the auditorium of the Monroe County Public Library. Elderly women cheered while sporting shirts with the candidate’s face, and college students sat on the floor after most of the seats had been filled.
“We’re all here today to take this campaign off the Internet and onto the streets, into the neighborhoods and on the phones,” said John Lacny, one of the event organizers to the group.
Lacny went on to explain that, in order for Sanders to get a spot on the Indiana primary ballot, he will need 500 petition signatures from each of Indiana’s nine congressional districts. So far, Lacny said, they have gathered 299 signatures for Monroe County alone.
Lacny told the audience the starting salary for teachers in Indiana is $33,000, the largest employer in the state is Wal-Mart and the average hourly wage is $15.63. These are problems Sanders can solve, Lacny claimed.
“When we go out there and we talk to people in this conservative state, we need to tell them to vote yourself a raise, vote for Bernie Sanders,” he said.
Though Sanders was viewed as an unlikely winner when he first announced his candidacy, in recent months he has drawn massive crowds across the country, rapidly closing the gap between him and the current Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton.
“I was a Hillary fan until I looked at where her donations came from,” Andi Haynes, a Bloomington resident, said. “She takes huge donations from corporations and big banks, while Bernie’s average donation is only $32 per person.”
Martlage said Bloomington is the ideal city to start campaigning in Indiana.
“I think there are a lot of progressive people here, and they’re tired of the way politics has been run,” she said. “I’ve been following Bernie’s career for a while, and I feel like he’s the most honest politician I’ve ever seen.”
The event’s organizers asked attendees to sign up for activities such as flyer-posting, tabling, door-knocking and registering voters. They said they hope to collaborate with student groups as well.
If people work hard enough at the grassroots level, Haynes said she is confident Sanders will win the presidency.
“My fiancé was a Bernie fan when we met, and I kind of got swept up in the Bernie mania,” Haynes said. “It’s what a lot of people are feeling. He’s speaking the truth, he’s different than any other politician, and it really does just sweep you up in the excitement.”
