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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) drew a crowd of more than 6,000 supporters to a rally in Vancouver, Wash., this afternoon.
"We are doing something unusual in American politics," Sanders said. "We're telling the truth."
The campaign event, which was free and open to the public, drew crowds to Hudson's Bay High School. Some people arrived as early as 4:30 this morning, and thousands were gathered in a zigzagging line by the time the doors opened at 11 am.
Sanders is swinging through Washington this weekend—with stops later today in Seattle and Spokane—in advance of the March 26 caucus, where he badly needs a win against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Sanders presented myriad reform ideas—a greatest-hits stump speech that featured a $15-an-hour national minimum wage, increased accountability for police forces, federal legalization of marijuana, and a tax on Wall Street that would raise money for public education.
He condemned corporate power in America and the influence of wealthy individuals in elections, stating that the current campaign-finance system is undermining American democracy.
"We are not establishment politics," Sanders said. "We are going to stand up and say no, this country is not going to become an oligarchy."
Reform ideas for national health care and tuition-free universities drew the loudest cheers from the chanting crowd that overfilled the high school gym and cafeteria, deafening Sanders in long bouts of applause.
Sanders compared his goals for free public colleges and universities to the values that America built its public education upon.
"In many ways, a college degree is equivalent today to what a high school degree once was," Sanders said.
Sanders has provided a serious challenge to Clinton from the left, upending what was once seen as an easy path to the nomination. But with very little margin left in the primary race, Sanders today argued his platform should not be dismissed as radical.
"Creating a decent standard of living for all of our people—our children and our veterans and our seniors—that's not radical," Sanders said. "That's what the American people want."
Willamette Week