De Soto High School students recently attended rallies for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Sophomores Sam McGuire and Zach Yarbrough attended the rally held at Bartle Hall on Feb. 24.

“I waited in line for a little bit. Everyone was really pumped there anyways to see him. We went in and we stood for a little bit and his campaign managers came in and did this big introduction and got the crowd all crazy. Then Sanders came out and everyone was screaming and it was so fun,” McGuire said.

Both McGuire and Yarbrough were excited to see Sanders in person.

“I was like 40 feet away from [Sanders] and I could not believe it,”McGuire said.

Yarbrough enjoyed being able to hear Sanders speak his positions on political issues.

“I told my parents after I got home, ‘we didn’t really go to learn new stuff, we went to hear him speak his views’,” Yarborough said.

Sanders focused on challenging conservative views.

“He focused on republican family values. He said he was trying to take away from the “men in workplace” type thing. He wants to raise the minimum wage and he wants single parents to be able to support their families,” McGuire said.

Sanders’ focus on the lower and middle class resonated with Yarbrough.

“He talked about how we need to focus on the little man, how someone working 40 hours a week shouldn’t be in poverty,” Yarborough said.

Neither McGuire or Yarborough will be old enough to vote in the election.

“It reinvigorated me, being a young person who can’t vote. It’s kind of hard to get involved, but once you find a candidate you enjoy, it’s really fun. It reminded us why we’re supporting him,” Yarbrough said.

McGuire enjoyed the experience, despite not being able to vote as well.

“Seeing him in real life, I thought ‘this could be a potential president’. That was a really cool experience and I’m excited to vote for the next election,” McGuire said.

Sophomore Kelly Henning attended a rally in Lawrence on March 3. Henning sat on the risers directly behind Sanders.

“[The staffers] talked to us and they said ‘be excited the whole time,’ because every news camera was on us,” Henning said.

Henning enjoyed being around fellow Sanders supporters.

“It was cool to see so many other people were excited about the same thing I was,” Henning said.