By Whitney Kimball

A dozen or so riders boarded a Fight For 15 bus Monday afternoon to protest outside of Hofra University, the location of the first presidential debate.

Over the course of this election cycle, Fight For 15, an organization in support of raising the federal minimum wage to $15, has morphed from a New York City-based fast food workers’ protest to a national social justice movement.

Anne Pruden, a woman in her 60s from downtown Brooklyn and passenger on the bus, realized the benefits of unions when she moved from Virginia and began working at a hospital supply job in New York.

Retired court reporter Chris Butters, who worked during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations, joined the protest because for years he said he watched young people of color languish in Riker’s Island when they couldn’t afford bail and would lose their jobs to multiple court dates.

Cameron Orr, a 31-year-old Communist Party member who performs in the subway during the day, grew up in a conservative rural town. He reversed his politics after being exposed to people who didn’t look like him and, contrary to his family’s beliefs, were not taking away his job opportunities. “Unless labor, racial justice, and civil rights groups come together, we’re fighting with our hands tied behind our backs,” said Orr.