Presidential Hopeful Comes to Gainesville
Originally published by WCJB
Presidential Hopeful Comes to Gainesville
3/4/2004
By Heather Sorentrue/WCJB TV 20 News
Florida's Democratic Primary is just days away. While many have labeled Senator John Kerry a shoe in, one of his competitors just won't give up. Dennis Kucinich is still campaigning and made three stops in Gainesville on Thursday.
His last stop was at UF's O'Connell Center, where he rallied support from voters and refused to concede to Senator Kerry. “There's a point at which the democrats unite and that point comes at the convention," says Kucinich.
Until then, the Ohio Congressman continues his fight for the Democratic Presidential Nomination and says he is in the race to keep debates alive.
During his question and answer session, Kucinich condemned the War in Iraq and pointed out Kerry's position.
"Senator Kerry voted for the war. I led the effort against the Patriot Act. Senator Kerry voted for the Patriot Act," says Kucinich.
Many Kucinich supporters are not swayed by their candidates struggle to gain momentum in the race. [ed. note: this sentence apparently means that the Kucinich supporters aren't swayed away from their support by the fact that their candidate is struggling. No we aren't.]
"A couple months ago everybody thought Dean was going to be the presidential nomination. A lot can happen in, you know, I guess in between now and the convention in July and also in the November election," says Jeff Bastian who drove from Tallahassee to hear the speech.
"He hasn't gotten much more than a few percentage points in each of the primaries. So, I think that John Kerry will get the nomination, but the primary is an opportunity to vote for the person that you really support based on the issues," says UF Graduate Student Sally Jensen.
Kucinich strongly criticized the Bush administration and says the country needs change.
"They're priorities happen to be tax cuts for the wealthy and war. Well, I'm talking about priorities which are education, health care, job creation and peace," Kucinich told a cheering crowd.
Kucinich argues the race for the democratic nomination is not over yet. Floridians will have their chance to vote in the primary on Tuesday, March 9.
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