Nurses step up campaign to win voters for Sanders in state with one of nations highest number of uninsured

MIAMI –Encouraged and energized by Bernie Sanders recent wins, National Nurses United registered nurse members are redoubling their efforts to educate Florida voters about why the nation’s most trusted profession trusts Bernie Sanders, their endorsed candidate for president, in the run-up to the state's March 15th primary.

The nurses #Bernie Bus will be holding events throughout the Miami Dade County area over the next several days, with the first stop outside of an early voter location at 1700 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach.

The bus which arrived in Florida last week did canvassing/voter outreach at a wide array of locations and events including a farmer's market in St. Petersburg, a shopping center in Ft. Trinity, Spring training in Kissimmee, Valencia community college in Kissimmee, Osceola Regional Medical, and Blake Medical Center in Bradenton,

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.

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 of the Affordable Care Act.

For Bus Schedule—contact Liz Jacobs, RN 510-457-5508

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 get-out-the-vote efforts in support of Sanders.