The Adams Center was rocking on Saturday morning, as several thousand supporters of Vermont Senator and former Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders stumped for Democrat Rob Quist in his bid for Congress.

After music by his family, Rob Quist took to the stage and stressed the differences between himself and his Republican opponent Greg Gianforte.

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Rob Quist
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"This election is a fight for the soul of Montana," Quist began to boisterous cheers. "People like Greg Gianforte, when they see our mountains, our rivers and our streams, they probably think, 'well that would be good to own.' (hearty boos from the audience) 'And fence in, and develop, but real Montanans would say 'this is our way of life'.

Quist slammed Gianforte, and said Congress should not only be for  'the millionaires club', but truly the House of Representatives'.

Following his remarks and serenading the crowd with his campaign song, Quist made way for Senator Bernie Sanders, whose speech was warmly and noisily received by the crowd, largely made up of young people,with a mix of young families and older people.

Sanders began his speech by mentioning the current crises swirling around the Trump White House, the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and the investigation into the possible collusion between the Trump administration and Russia, then said, that wasn't what he wanted to talk about.

"What I am talking about is the fact that the status quo in Washington, even before Donald Trump, is not working and we need real change," Sanders said. "It is clear to me that only candidate who will fight for real change is Rob Quist. The bottom line is we cannot continue having a Congress that is funded by millionaires and billionaires, and which every single day is doing the bidding of the wealthiest people and the largest corporations in this country. Rob understands that the middle class of this country has been in decline for 40 years, and we will not survive if we continue to have a rigged economy in which the rich get richer and almost everybody else gets poorer."

Sanders continued to hammer on themes that became familiar in his run for the Presidency, issues such as health care, which both he and Quist agreed should be what is termed 'Medicare for all', in addition to women's reproductive health, and the full funding of Planned Parenthood, along with heavy government support for higher education.

Sanders ended by saying that Republicans are nervous about this election and that the nation's eyes are on Montana, and asked the crowd to volunteer for the rest of the week until Thursday's special election.

Following the rally, Sanders and Quist were on their way to Butte and Billings.

 

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