MIAMI – An hour before Sen. Bernie Sanders was set to speak, Miami's James L. Knight Center was already a pretty full house.
There were plenty of fans in their 30s and 20s in downtown Miami. Age and gender gaps define much of his rivalry with Hillary Clinton.
"We are going to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, $15 bucks an hour," Sanders said. The crowd in downtown Miami shouted: "Yes!" He added that his campaign was "listening to young people."
Sanders commands majorities with voters who are self-described liberals and younger than 50, according an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
When Sanders talked to Caracol 1260, one of the main Colombian radio networks, Tuesday, he said the reason why the youth followed him was, because he addressed the issues of global warming, tuition and minimum wage.
During the radio show he also said he wasn't "up to date" with Colombia's civil war peace talks in Cuba. The Vermont senator also said, "I think the United States has not paid anywhere near the kind of attention that it should be paying to Latin America."
Sanders, a Democrat who calls himself a socialist, is new to South Florida politics, where Cuban-Americans and Colombian-Americans are a majority. The two groups have sought refuge in South Florida, after Marxism-Leninism fueled havoc in their countries.
Ahead of Tuesday's Democratic primaries in Michigan and Mississippi, where Clinton was expected to win, Sanders focused on pockets of democratic voters that could help him get ahead after the March 15th Florida primary.
Sanders was the projected winner in Michigan Tuesday night, while Clinton was projected to have prevailed in Mississippi.
Sanders is likely going to speak about minimum wage and tuition free universities at 3 p.m., Thursday, at the Osceola Heritage Park, in Kissimmee, where there is an influx of Democratic-leaning Puerto Rican voters.
Sanders is also set to speak at 7 p.m., Friday, at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in Tampa, where there is a growing Mexican-American and Venezuelan-American population.
