[A]IKEN, S.C. – Hay bales and horse barns dotted fields near the stadium where Sen. Bernie Sanders ended a long Saturday of campaigning.
Sanders’ field director Phil Fiermonte whizzed by a dead deer carcass on the side of a road in an all-American Chrysler minivan — red like his bumper stickers — with Sanders in the backseat and campaign manager Jeff Weaver riding shotgun.
The van hurtled by trees that glowed red and orange, tinted by a setting sun. Farm vehicles drove on main roads.
The setting seemed like an October evening during peak foliage in Vermont, except it was November, and Sanders was being shuttled south to Aiken for his last campaign event following a long day of stops.
The deeper South that Bernie Sanders drove, the more the views out his window resembled his home state in the North. And just like the weather, the more he headed south, the warmer the reception he got from his supporters.
Here in Aiken, Sanders held his most dynamic event of the day, a 1,300-person rally at the University of South Carolina. The crowd’s energy was contagious, and nearly as large as the 2,000 people who gathered on Burlington’s waterfront to help the Vermont senator kick off his campaign in June.
But make no mistake, Aiken is not Burlington. It’s a Southern place.
Baptist churches are a fixture of the local landscape here. One church sign read: “Autumn leaves, Jesus doesn’t.”
The earth also looks different, the soil a rusty red clay, coordinating well with the color affiliated with many who live here: Republicans.
In an hour-long drive around the Heritage Corridor in Aiken, only one political yard sign was spotted, for Donald Trump, sitting in the front yard of a rotted trailer home, one of many spotted along this stretch of highway. Nearby, a white mansion, part of a plantation behind a wooden gate, was the only sign on that road of the South Carolina 1 percent.
The Heritage Corridor is a 320-mile-long road, dotted with old Civil War forts, churches and cemeteries. The Battle of Aiken, which took place here in February 1865, saw one of the last Confederate victories.
Sanders’ speech at the University of South Carolina’s Convocation Center on Saturday was eight miles from the Battle of Aiken war site, and he fought his own battle onstage, attacking corporate greed and corrupt politicians.
It was his final push in a long day of offense throughout the Palmetto State.
The Morning : ROCK HILL
Sanders started his day in Rock Hill – the fifth largest city in the state – a place overflowing with strip malls, restaurant chains and Payday loan offices.
Team Sanders woke up early Saturday, the morning after the MSNBC Democratic forum. Sanders spoke to around 100 people at the South Carolina Democratic Women’s Council at 9:30 a.m.
Sanders made sure to get a good night’s sleep Friday, and went to bed shortly after the forum ended. But a number of state and national staffers stayed up late, unwinding in a hotel room with junk food and wine.
Sanders’ morning speech to the women’s group was similar to his remarks Friday, and so was his wardrobe (the senator’s blue shirt and blue tie Saturday matched his outfit exactly from the Friday forum. No word on his underwear).
Sanders was met with some initial skepticism from the crowd, many of whom seemed to be staked out in the Clinton corner. One woman who was offered a Bernie sign replied, “No, thank you,” before looking at her phone, which was displaying the Hillary Clinton campaign website on the screen.
Christale Spain, a former organizer for the state’s female Democrats, introduced Sanders by listing off his support for pay equity between men and women, expanded maternity leave and racial justice reforms.
Sanders came on next, to a standing ovation, and spoke for about half an hour. He got the crowd fired up, and crowd members often clapped or hummed “Mmmm hmmm” following a policy line.
“When a mom has a baby, that mom deserves to stay home with that baby, it’s not a radical idea,” Sanders told the crowd. “Every psychologist in the world who studies the issue understands that the first few months of a baby’s life are enormously important.”
The group of female Democrats presented Sanders with a pair of homemade earrings following his remarks, silver with blue B’s emblazoned on them for “Bernie.”
The presidential hopeful stayed after the event for awhile and snapped selfies with fans, along with his wife, Jane.
Sanders advisers denied that Sanders’ long interactions after the event were a reaction to a recent New York Times article that portrayed Sanders as an aloof character who doesn’t much like one-on-one interactions with voters.
“When he has time and we aren’t rushed, he sticks around for photos and to talk to folks,” spokesman Michael Briggs said.
After photos, Sanders left through a back door and headed to speak with African-American leaders and union representatives in Columbia. The 23 leaders were scheduled to officially endorse Sanders there.
Sanders stopped for breakfast on the way to the meeting, first trying IHOP, which had too long a wait. He instead got over-easy eggs and bacon at some other joint that also served deep-fried hot dogs, which Sanders skipped, advisers said.
The Afternoon: COLUMBIA
Sanders arrived at the Columbia Conference Center at 1 p.m., the big, red Bernie van sloshing through puddles of rain while parking.
During drives, the van is usually pretty quiet, advisers said. Sanders often reads the New York Times or the Washington Post on his iPad, Briggs said.
Inside the center and out of the rain, Sanders sat in a circle with local leaders for an hour in a closed-door session. Through a window, Sanders could be seen nodding often, and he didn’t talk much. The group consisted of a cross section of local and state politicians, faith leaders, Black Lives Matter activists and labor representatives.
“It is clear to me that Sen. Sanders is the strongest candidate here for African-Americans, and he will bring about a change,” said state Rep. Terry Alexander in a news conference following the meeting.
“Sen. Sanders is the one who has the heart of the people in his heart,” he added.
Sanders’ Endorsements in Columbia
Hillary Clinton has won more endorsements from leaders in South Carolina than Sanders, but his advisers said they are actively recruiting and deploying organizers to make Bernie’s case to eligible voters.
“We actually have people, right now, that are at the barbershops, going to the basketball courts, going to the unconventional places” for voter education, said Marcus Ferrell, Sanders’ African-American outreach coordinator.
“We have our folks all over the state right now, and we are going to continue to grow,” he added.
According to a recent Winthrop University poll, Sanders has about 8 percent of support from the African-American community in the state. Clinton is at 80 percent.
Sanders thinks that as more people are introduced to his message, his poll numbers will grow.
“My guess is that in South Carolina, 80 – 90 percent of the people here didn’t even know who Bernie Sanders was, let alone what I stood for,” a few months ago, the Vermont senator said in a speech Saturday.
Sanders’ advisers point to the fact that South Carolina’s primary is still very far away, in February, and there are a good number of undecided voters left. Team Sanders is now making the big push in the state now, with radio ads recently unveiled.
“I don’t think it’s not working,” Rep. Alexander said after endorsing Sanders. “We just haven’t worked it yet.”
Fiermonte, a longtime adviser to Sanders, steered the van to Columbia, and is almost always behind the wheel.
Briggs said he has only driven once throughout the entire campaign, during a previous visit to South Carolina.
Fiermonte estimated that he’s logged tens of thousands of miles as Sanders’ wheel man over the years, including to many Town Hall meetings and Fourth of July parades in Vermont.
Fiermonte then stretched out his back and lifted his arms high. He would be behind the wheel again soon, headed farther south to Aiken.
The Evening: AIKEN
Aiken County is 71 percent white, slightly more homogenous than the South Carolina average, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. Twenty-five percent of residents in the county are African-American.
Hundreds of people filled the Convocation Center to see Sanders speak at 7 p.m., a good chunk of them white. Many sported tattoos, cutoff shirts and bristly beards while many more were college-aged.
Sanders spent about an hour here diving deep into what his presidency would look like. Huge infrastructure projects reminiscent of FDR’s New Deal. An overhaul of the racial justice system and abolition of mandatory minimum sentences. Equal pay.
One of his most popular lines of the night came in his admonishment of South Carolina’s Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, who chose not to expand Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act.
“If we are going to transform America and deal with the issues that face us all – all across this country – millions of people are going to have to stand up and say loudly and clearly ‘Enough is enough,’” Sanders said near the end of his speech to riotous applause.
The crowd Felt the Bern, and Sanders won the political battle in Aiken. But like the Civil War, it takes more than one victory in one battle to win the presidential nomination. Just ask Robert E. Lee.
