It’s not exactly the place you’d expect to see a Democratic candidate stump for president, but Sen. Bernie Sanders was at the world’s largest Christian college on Tuesday, challenging students to join him in his crusade against inequality.
An auditorium of 10,000 people at Liberty University welcomed the surging presidential hopeful who now leads former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in some polls in both Iowa and New Hampshire—the first two contests on the Democratic primary schedule next year.
Sanders began his remarks by acknowledging the ideological differences between himself and most in attendance at the school, which is known for its staunch fundamentalist conservatism.
“I understand that the issues of abortion and gay marriage are issues that you feel very strongly about. We disagree on those issues. I get that,” he said.
“But let me respectfully suggest that there are other issues out there that are of enormous consequences to our country and the entire world,” Sanders stated. He then pivoted toward his economic populist message, noting that 45 million Americans are living in poverty while “the very, very rich become richer.”
“That in my view is not justice,” he boomed to the crowd. “That is a rigged economy, designed by the wealthiest people in this country to benefit the wealthiest people in this country at the expense of everybody else.”
A small, but enthusiastic section of Sanders supporters in the auditorium cheered loudly after Sanders made most of his regular points. Their enthusiasm was no less audible after the senator defended a woman’s right to choose and marriage equality.
The majority in attendance, however, reserved their loudest ovation for later in the event, when the candidate was challenged on his views toward abortion, and why he doesn’t extend protections from the “billionaire class” to “children in the womb.”
Sanders paused as the auditorium erupted into applause. He then countered, saying he believed it was “improper for the United States government or state governments to tell every woman in this country the very painful and difficult choice that she has to make on that issue.”
When asked on race relations, Sanders took the opportunity to speak to a movement that he has been criticized for not paying enough attention to: Black Lives Matter.
He claimed that the nation had come a long way since being founded on “racist principles,” but that racism remained “alive in this country”
“When you have unarmed African Americans shot by police officers, something which has been going of for years, that is also institutional racism and cries out for reform,” Sanders said. “When a police officer breaks the law, that officer must be held accountable,”
He called for sentencing reform and police demilitarization.
Sanders also took a swipe at the right’s demonization of immigrants; a trend that has propelled Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to the top of the party’s primary race.
“When we hear political leaders appealing to the worst elements of us by making racist attacks against people from another country or people whose color may be different than most of us, we have got to stand up and say in America you’re not going to do that,” he said. “Racism is unacceptable.”
Liberty University was founded by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell, and is a haven for Republican politicians and far right-wing thought. In March, Sen. Ted Cruz spoke to the very same crowd to announce his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
