News

Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were in Denver as part of their “Fighting Oligarchy Tour”. Statehouse Reporter Lucas Brady Woods was there, and shared what it was like with KOTO’s Julia Caulfield.

Julia Caulfield:  Senator Sanders and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez were in Colorado last week for two rallies, one in Denver and another in Greeley. You were covering the Greeley rally. What was it like being there? What was the energy? 

Lucas Brady Woods: It was really interesting. These two rallies were part of Sander’s quote “Fighting Oligarchy Tour.” He’s doing this to really draw attention, especially to Elon Musk and the influence that he’s able to get as Donald Trump’s biggest campaign donor. He donated over $200 million to the Trump campaign, which very much helped get Trump elected. And now he has an appointment in the administration.

So, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez were really drawing attention to that a lot. They held the rally at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. About 10,000 people showed up to the Greeley rally and that is a lot of people for a rally there. Only about 3,000 could fit in the arena and so the rest were outside and on lawns and overflow and many even had to be turned away because there just wasn’t even room.

And then here in Denver, Sanders actually said it was the biggest rally that he’s ever held. And there were over 30,000 people estimated to be here at Civic Center Park in Denver. So, these were some major turnouts. He spent a lot of the time in Greely really pointing out the growing wealth inequality in this country.

You know, he did some interesting crowd work in Greeley where he asked “Who here has really high premiums on their health insurance?” And you know, a lot of people shouted out that they do, and he was like, “How much do you have?” So they kind of shouted back.

So it was a lot of this very populist work with the crowd, bringing people in, firing them up. And the crowd in Greeley was pretty angry, I would say. Enthusiastic, but angry at the Trump administration.

I think the other really important thing to point out is he started off both his speeches, talking about how important, and how much he likes, Ocasio-Cortez. And so it really felt like him elevating her and preparing to maybe hand off the baton that he’s represented for so long to her, you know? So I think there was an element of that too. 

Caulfield: You mentioned folks were really engaged and riled up. Was there a call to action or something that Sanders was asking Coloradans and those in attendance to do? 

Brady Woods: Not so specific. One of the reasons that they came to Colorado was because they’re targeting districts that were won by Republicans in November by really small margins.

So they did come to Greeley specifically because of Congressman Gabe Evans, who won in the eighth Congressional District in November by less than 2,000 votes, right? Or around 2,000 votes. They were calling him out directly for not holding town halls and all this stuff and saying that the people of the eighth (congressional district) deserve better.

So I think there wasn’t necessarily a call to action other than amplifying issues with the current congressional representation, right? And trying to rally support against Evans and other Republicans like him.

Caulfield: Well, it’s a very federal-heavy check-in. But Lucas, thank you so much for taking a couple of minutes to chat with me. We’ll be back next week with more state legislature-focused issues.

Brady Woods: Yes, we’ll have a lot to talk about, and always glad to touch on the federal stuff, but. Always like to get back to the state stuff, so I’ll look forward to talking to you next week.