Bernie Sanders visits Michigan State, talks one-on-one

LANSING, Mich. (WJBK) - The national shining on Michigan as we become the focus of the presidential race.

With our primary days away, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders held a rally in front of thousands in Lansing tonight.

Thousands gathered for Bernie Sanders' stump before the Michigan Primary. He said that real change comes from the bottom up.

He also spoke about what a Sanders presidency would mean for Michigan.

"And if elected president, what I will demand is corporate America start investing in Michigan, Vermont and in America," he said. "Not just in China or Mexico."

Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders railed on NAFTA, politicians that allow billionaires to bank roll their campaigns and called for Gov. Rick Snyder's ouster over the Flint water crisis during his hour long stump speech in East Lansing

"The dereliction of duty from the governor is so high, that he should resign," Sanders said.

Sanders is coming off a shaky showing on Super Tuesday, winning only four of eleven states against Hillary Clinton and some say his days on the campaign trail are numbered.

But the Vermont senator is adamant the fight for the Democratic nomination is far from over -- and his supporters agree.

Sanders says he'll need these voters, mostly millenials and college students, to turn out in droves to win the Michigan Primary. He'll need African-Americans too.

But despite his support for the Black Lives Matter movement, speaking out against mass incarceration and income inequality, Sanders has not been able to get a substantial amount of the black vote.

"I think we're doing better," Sanders said in a one-on-one interview. "In South Carolina we did frankly, quite poorly. But if you look at the entry and exit polls, yes it was a racial vote but it was also a generational vote.

FOX 2 talked with Sanders before he hit the stage.

"If you look at the candidate that can beat Donald Trump, poll after poll shows Bernie Sanders is stronger than Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump," Sanders said. "I was beating him by 12 points."

FOX 2: "A lot of people get scared off by the term socialist, what do you do to engage those voters?"

"Programs like Social Security which is one of the most popular programs in America is a quote-unquote socialist program," he said. "Medicare which is enormously popular in providing healthcare to our seniors is a single payer socialistic health insurance program."

In addition to universal healthcare sanders is also calling for free college tuition and expanding social security he'd pay for it by taxing the wealthy, corporations' profits in offshore banks and wall street speculators

"But it will not happen unless we win the Primary here," Sanders said.

The Primary is set for March 8 with 148 delegates at stake.