Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, held his “biggest” ever rally in Los Angeles, alongside Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, and other progressive lawmakers on Saturday, according to his staff.
Newsweek reached out on Saturday to the Los Angeles fire and police departments to ask if they have an independent estimate of the rally crowd size.
Why It Matters
Democrats have struggled to respond to President Donald Trump, his billionaire ally Elon Musk and congressional Republicans in the wake of their defeat in last year’s election. Polling shows approval of the Democratic Party and its representatives in Congress at record lows.
However, Sanders’ and Ocasio-Cortez’s efforts appear to be breaking through with many in the country. Thousands have turned out in multiple states to attend their rallies as part of the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
What to Know
Sanders’ communications director Anna Bahr posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday afternoon, sharing an aerial photo of the massive rally crowd at Gloria Molina Grand Park.
“Can confirm that this is the biggest @BernieSanders rally ever. 36,000 people are out in Los Angeles right now,” Bahr wrote.
In a follow up post, she included another angle of the event and wrote: “36,000 strong in Los Angeles. Biggest @BernieSanders rally ever.”
A couple hours earlier, Bahr re-posted a link to a live stream of the event and posted: “More than 19,000 people are onsite right now. @BernieSanders and @AOC don’t go on for another two hours.”
In addition to the two prominent progressives, Democratic Representatives Ro Khanna of California and Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, who previously chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), spoke at the event. Musical guests Neil Young, Maggie Rogers and Joan Baez performed at the event as well.
Sanders, 83, who caucuses with Senate Democrats and previously ran for president unsuccessfully as a Democrat in 2016 and 2020, is seen by most analysts as the most prominent leader within the progressive political movement.
Last month, Sanders held what was reportedly his previous largest ever rally in Denver. That event, which also featured Ocasio-Cortez, 35, drew in a reported 34,000 attendants. Individuals who attended that rally told Newsweek that the line to enter was so long they gave up and had to watch from outside the fenced off area.
Prior to the Denver event, Sanders’ largest ever rally is reportedly one held in Queens, New York, in October 2019 when he was seeking the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Ocasio-Cortez attended that event as well, endorsing his ultimately unsuccessful campaign.
Sanders has been holding the recent rallies as part of his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which the progressive senator launched in opposition to Trump and Musk, the world’s wealthiest man. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been making sweeping cuts to spending and firing thousands of federal workers.
“Let me tell you something about the oligarchs. They are very, very religious people. But their religion isn’t based on doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Their religion is not based on love or justice. Their religion is based on greed, greed and more greed,” Sanders said Saturday during the Los Angeles rally.
What People Are Saying
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the Saturday rally: “Big money is how we got Donald Trump. And his whole presidency began with launching tools for bribery, meme coins to fleece working people and move around money in the dark, extortion settlements from media companies and law firms who gladly pay them.”
Representative Ro Khanna at the rally: “You had the richest guy in the world spend $250 million to put Donald Trump back in the White House. Then Trump hands him the keys—to slash Medicaid, gut public education, and rip food stamps away from families.”
Elon Musk on Sanders’ recent Denver rally in a March 23 X post: “The Dems just move around the same group of paid ‘protesters.'”
President Donald Trump on Truth Social on Wednesday: “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!”
What Happens Next
Sanders has more events scheduled in the coming days, including stops in the conservative states of Utah, Montana and Idaho.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are frequently floated in public polling as potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders, but at 83 years old, most analysts do not expect Sanders to run again. Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez has also been urged by many Democrats to challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for his New York Senate seat in 2028.
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