Bernie Sanders, an underdog Democratic presidential candidate who is gaining ground on the presumed party leader, announced Monday that Florida A&M University will be among the colleges he visits during his upcoming “Feel the Bern” HBCU tour.
Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is challenging front-runner Hillary Clinton and dark horse candidate Martin O’Malley for the Democratic Party nomination for the 2016 presidential election.
Sanders will be visiting a number of HBCUs, including Tennessee State University, Jackson State University, Virginia State University, Howard University and more, according to the press release on his website.
Justin Bruno, FAMU student body vice president and president of FAMU’s College Democrats, believes Sanders visiting FAMU will be a positive experience for FAMU students and engage them more in the political process.
“This is an opportunity for the candidate, Bernie Sanders, and student leaders to encourage students to get more involved in the democratic process, and exercising your right to vote and actually knowing what’s going on,” Bruno said. “Even if [visiting] doesn’t shift things in his favor, it’ll probably get more students involved in actually going to see what is going on with current events.”
Other FAMU students are ready to see what Sanders has to say to the FAMU committee.
“I think it’s great, because he’s acknowledging the Black students,” Kiah Hill, second-year biology student at FAMU from Miami said, “He is taking the opportunity to acknowledge what we [the black students] think and feel about the future of our government.”
The latest CNN poll, according to the CNN Newsroom twitter, shows that Sanders is leading Clinton in both Iowa and New Hampshire, states that are seen as essential to winning the party nomination.
“If people are deeply involved and the political conscience goes up then we can bring the profound changes to this country,” Sanders tweeted Monday.
“[They’re] trying to engage students and a younger crowd so they can get as many people out to vote as possible,” Bruno said. “I would accost students to take advantage of the opportunity, especially at a school like FAMU which is very much influenced by Legislature and government.”
The dates for his visit to FAMU have not been released.