PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry energized supporters at a rally held at Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth Sunday night, with chants of "'Kerry! Kerry!' and 'Four more weeks!'" greeting the veteran legislator as he arrived for his Monday town hall forum with actor Michael J. Fox to discuss stem cell research.
Approximately 3,000 people attended the rally -- about six times as many as organizers had expected. The venue only held two-thirds of those in attendance, leaving about 1,000 Kerry supporters in the cold. To show his appreciation for them, Kerry first spoke to those left outside.
Kerry delivered a stump speech that nonetheless invigorated the rally's attendees. Amidst cries of encouragement, he urged supporters to keep knocking on doors to spread the campaign's message.
"These next 30 days are the most important 30 days of the most important election of our lives," Kerry said.
Kerry spoke on a broad range of topics that included international relations, the economy and healthcare. He cited statistics that show 131,000 people in New Hampshire lack healthcare, and 28,000 of them had been deprived of healthcare during the Bush administration, he said.
He pledged, if elected, to use his first day in office to introduce a healthcare bill to provide more access.
Supporters from around the area braved the cold for three hours Sunday as they waited for Kerry's plane to land.
The New Hampshire chapter of the International Association of Firefighters, which has supported Kerry since the beginning of his campaign last year, attended the event. The union's bagpipe band entertained Kerry's supporters as the other firefighters cheered.
"Kerry believes in union issues like safe workplaces, safe staffing of fire trucks and retirement," said Brad Hutchings, a Northampton firefighter. "It is directly reflecting how he likes firefighters."
Enthusiastic college students joined the crowd of supporters as well. Julia Treseder '07 came, she said, because she was excited to hear a possible future president speak. Of importance to Treseder is Kerry's environmental policy, which she prefers to that of Bush, but still thinks needs work.
"If I were not in a battleground state, I would probably vote for Nader," Treseder said.
Amy Weeks, a sophomore from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, came to support Kerry's healthcare plan because she finds it a moral issue that so many people who don't have access, she said.
"We really need change in this country and John Kerry's the man," Weeks said.
Kerry closed Sunday's event by thanking New Hampshire for the support he has gotten since the beginning of the campaign, and by urging supporters to continue their hard work.
"It's been a long road and nobody knows that better than New Hampshire," Kerry said. "We've got to go out and finish this job."
At Monday's town hall forum, Kerry, focusing on stem cell research, criticized President Bush's failure to support further research due to his "extreme right-wing ideology." Of the 60 stem cell lines Bush's August 2001 policy made available to researchers, only 19 are available for use, the Indianapolis Star reported in June 2004. Kerry promised to lift the ideological restrictions on stem cell research and commit $100 million per year to research. He reassured attendees though, that there would still be "strict ethical oversight" of the research.
