Dark horse presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) came back to Washington for a whirlwind of campaigning, at three rallies in Vancouver, Seattle, and Spokane.
The people were there to meet him.
In overwhelming force.
According to Newsweek magazine,
VANCOUVER, Washington—If it’s too late for Bernie Sanders to catch his rival Hillary Clinton and win enough delegates to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, someone forgot to tell Bryan Anaya.
Bernie speaking to a packed venue in VancouverAnaya, a 27-year-old construction worker from Vancouver, awoke at 5:30 a.m. Sunday because he’d heard on a radio talk show that Sanders had planned a rally in his city, in advance of Washington’s democratic caucus on Saturday. He and his girlfriend, 28-year-old Nichole Vega, dressed her two children, 6-year-old Julissa and 2-year-old Julian, and headed to Hudson’s Bay High School to wait in line in a blustery Pacific Northwest downpour, to hear Sanders speak. They waited for hours. “The kids are soaked,” Vega said.
Then the rally started.
An hour later, after some short speeches to the thousands of people packed into an overflowing room and thousands more huddled outside in the rain, Sanders took the podium. “All I can say,” he said after he finally quieted the cheering crowd, “is whoa.” Before delivering his standard stump speech, Sanders made clear he’s not ready to bow out anytime soon.
“When we began this campaign about 10 months ago the general feeling of the media and the pundits is that we were looking at a coronation, that there was an anointed candidate who would simply and quietly get the democratic candidate nomination,” he said. “Ten months have come and gone. It doesn’t look to me like that’s the case.”
This is in a place which has a capacity of 4,700 people. There were thousands waiting outside.
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) - More than 7,500 people turned out to a high school in Vancouver, Washington
According to the Sanders campaign,
SEATTLE – In a big show of support for Bernie Sanders, more than 17,300 supporters turned out for a rally here on Sunday. Earlier in the day, Sanders drew 8,100 people to a high school gym in Vancouver, Washington, as Democrats here gear up for statewide caucuses next Saturday. Also on Sunday the Sanders campaign filed a report showing that in February it raised a record $43.5 million from 1.5 million contributions averaging about $30 apiece.
But it was nothing close to Seattle. Some sources have put the crowd size as large as 20,000 to 30,000.
Welcome back to Seattle Huge Crowd Of 20,000-30,000 Estimated At Bernie Sanders Seattle RallyBy Jason Easley on Sun, Mar 20th, 2016 at 6:52 pm
SEATTLE Washington — Hours before Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was set to speak in Seattle, WA an estimated crowd of 20,000-30,000 lined up to get into an arena that holds 17,000.
According to Politicus USA:
Key Arena is Berning!It is being estimated that 20,000-30,000 came out to see Sen. Sanders. The Seattle rally will be the second one in the last three days to top 14,000. While Donald Trump continues to con the media into believing that he is the candidate who is bringing new voters into the political process, it is Bernie Sanders who is exciting younger voters and energizing massive crowds from coast to coast.
The crowd for the Sanders Seattle rally was so large that it wrapped around both sides of Key Arena (the former home of the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics):
Others put the crowd size as closer to 20,000.
another 10,300 showed up at an arena in Seattle on Sunday for Bernie Sanders rallies, two of three taking place in the state that day.
In Seattle, Sanders applauded the city's move to incrementally phase in a $15-an-hour minimum wage by 2017 that took effect in April 2015.
Lines outside the stadium were huge before the event, and according to Seattle officials, 5,500 people remained outside during Sanders' speech and another 1,500 left when they didn't make it into the stadium. Sanders addressed the overflow crowd outside before his official remarks. Some in line said they had arrived at around 10:30 a.m. for the rally that began around 5:40 p.m.
Inside the arena, Sanders pledged to make it easier for people to vote. He elicited huge roars when addressing a number of issues such as racial justice, his intent to implement universal health care and fight climate change.
"In my view we have a moral responsibility to leave this planet to our children and grandchildren in a way that is healthy and habitable," said.
According to The Seattle Times, which just published a story on the rally,
Thousands lined up in the drizzle at Seattle Center Sunday to hear Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders bring his anti-billionaire message to Washington ahead of this week’s caucuses.
People started queuing up hours before the doors opened at KeyArena for the 5 p.m. rally. By midafternoon the line coiled past the Space Needle and EMP Museum and along 5th Avenue.
With many told the 17,000-seat arena had reached capacity, a big screen and loudspeakers were set up at the International Fountain.
Sanders waves to supporters at Key ArenaSanders spoke to a large crowd outside KeyArena shortly after 5 p.m. before addressing the rally inside.
The enthusiasm for Sanders echoed through KeyArena even before he arrived as speakers led the crowd in chants of “Feel the Bern.”
State Rep. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, stood with several pro-Sanders state legislators and urged the rally participants to turn some of their political energy to the Legislature, drawing boos when she told the crowd Republicans, who control the state Senate, are close to taking a majority in the state House too.
“You know a political revolution doesn’t stop at the presidential level,” she said.
And according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer
Seattle is "ready for a political revolution," insurgent Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders told a cheering throng at KeyArena Sunday night, in the largest political rally the Emerald City has seen since Barack Obama came through early in 2008.
Sanders: “I think Seattle is ready for a political revolution!”The self-described democratic socialist railed against "a corrupt campaign finance system" dominated by billionaires as well as a "rigged economy" where billionaires get to mine wealth and working people get the shaft.
Sanders spoke in a raspy voice, sounding like an old fashioned Prairie populist by way of Brooklyn and Burlington, Vermont.
He urged the crowd to "think outside the box," but with themes and devil figures very much a part of the left echo chamber that is Seattle politics.
People at the back of the line were being told that the arena is full. At 2:50 PM, for a rally that did not start for another two and a half hours.
To wrap up the day’s activities the Vermont Senator will be rallying in Spokane.
SPOKANE, Wash. -
Sanders' Spokane stop follows the campaign's stops in the Seattle area Saturday. The event is free to the public, but RSVPs for the rally have already reached capacity according to the campaign's website.
People started lining up outside the rally Sunday afternoon as early as 2:30 p.m. Doors for the rally aren't expected to open until 6 p.m. and Sanders isn't expected to speak until about 9 p.m. Supporters were in line holding signs and some supporters were phone banking for Sanders while they waited to get inside. One supporter our Katie Chen spoke with had pizza delivered to her spot in line so she wouldn't lose it.
The Convention Center expects about 10,000 people to show up Sunday.
Here is a livestream of the Spokane rally. Some reports have estimated 12,000 people there.
FEEL THE BERN!