In countdown to primary nurses reach out to voters in college campuses, festivals, farmers markets and parades in Tampa area

TAMPA– Nurses aboard National Nurses United’s #BernieBus have been connecting with voters in the Sunshine State all week—listening to the issues that impact residents’ lives—and will be heading to the Tampa area on Friday.

The nurses on the #BernieBus, have been reaching out to voters about why they support Bernie Sanders in a wide variery of setting and locations throughout the state including neighborhood canvasses and phone banks, hospitals, college campuses, farmers markets, and even a Spring training camp, in Sarasota, Miami, St. Petersburg, Kissimmee, Fort Lauderdale, and Hialeah.

Provisional Bus Schedule—March 11-12

FRIDAY: PLANT CITY
Early Afternoon — Campus Canvass at Hillsborough Community College
Late Afternoon — Florida Strawberry Festival

SATURDAY: BRADENTON/TAMPA
Morning — Farmer's Market, Old Main Street
Afternoon — Rough Rider Parade, 7th Avenue Tampa

Please contact Liz Jacobs, RN for specific times and places to connect with bus: 510-435-7674

On Wednesday, two busloads of NNU nurse members from hospitals in the Fort Lauderdale area cheered their co-workers as they cast their ballots for Sanders at an early voting site. The bus and its nurses then made a special appearance by Sanders supporters at a pre-debate rally held at Miami Dade College.

FL International Univ. student tells why she feels the Bern

“I have spent my life taking care of others so that they could have the best care possible, “said Sofia Morycan, an RN at a Fort Lauderdale Hospital. “Bernie Saunders is not a politician but rather someone that stands up for what he believes in. I am on the front lines everyday taking care of my patients and I know that Bernie will be a voice that will fight along side of me. He appreciates nurses values and supports us and that is why I voted early for him. I am asking all nurses in South Florida to get out and vote early and let’s make a difference in this."

“People throughout Florida have been excited to see the nurses for Bernie bus. They come up to us and want to know more about Bernie, or many times, they’re already supporters—and they give us their reasons for supporting Bernie while we share ours,” said RN Deborah Burger an NNU Co-President, who has been traveling on the bus for the last two weeks.

Nurses have been touring the country, and particularly swing states, since January in their #BernieBus, using it as a mobile voter education vehicle. To date they have traveled through Iowa, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio Illinois, and Missouri.

“From Nevada to New Hampshire, from Colorado to South Carolina, nurses have talked to voters and been reminded of the huge gaps in access to health care and education, concerns about retirement security, the jobs lost due to unfair trade deals, widespread inequality, and the escalating climate crisis that continue to plague so many communities and families,” said RoseAnn DeMoro, Executive Director of NNU.

One of the top reasons nurses and healthcare workers support Bernie Sanders’ candidacy is his unequivocal demand to expand Medicare to provide healthcare to all residents as a basic human right, not a for-profit enterprise. Florida, with 948,000 uninsured adults, ranks among states with the country’s highest numbers of uninsured, despite passage of the Affordable Care Act. The state’s governor, former hospital corporate executive Rick Scott, has refused to implement the Medicaid expansion provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

National Nurses United, with over 185,000 members in all 50 states, is the largest organization of registered nurses in the U.S. and the first union to endorse Sanders, in August last year. Since then, NNU members have been organizing house parties, rallies and phone banks, and mobilizing door- to-door getout-the-vote efforts in support of Sanders.