More than 34,000 people filled Denver's Civic Center Park for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rally Friday evening. The rally was the largest in a week that saw Democrats host various events and town halls across the state.
"The American people are saying loud and clear, we will not accept an oligarchic form of society," Sanders told the crowd on the University of Northern Colorado campus. "We will not accept the richest guy in the world running all over Washington, making cuts to the Social Security administration, cuts to the Veterans Administration, almost destroying the Department of Education—all so that they could give over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest 1 percent."
"We need to show up, show up in force," Mary Brown of Lakewood said at the Denver rally. "The more people, the more the government will realize we're not happy with what's currently happening and we want changes."
Earlier Friday, more than 11,000 people flocked to the Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley to see the pair. The appearances were part a national "Fight the Oligarchy" tour by Sanders, which includes a string of stops in western states.
Sanders, an independent from Vermont and a two-time former Democratic presidential candidate, started his “coast to coast” tour, aimed at creating a populist resistance against President Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk and the current Administration's policies.
"We need leaders with courage and the vision to hold corporate power accountable," he said. "To break up monopolies, to enforce the laws that built the middle class, to protect our planet and to crack down on the oligarchs that have seized our country and stolen the American dream from us."
On Friday, Ocasio-Cortez took aim at a media ecosystem and politics she says are meant to divide voters.
"If you don't know your neighbor, it's easier to turn on them," she said. "That's why they want to keep us separated, alone and apart. Scrolling on our phones thinking that the person next to us is some kind of enemy, but they're not."
Some voters said they came out to find a sense of comradery. "I'm so happy to see something happening against everything that's going on with the administration," Cathy Leon of Fort Collins said at the UNC rally. "It's just really nice to be out here and be with people of like-mind." A message both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez touched on.
"Our task here is to build community. That's the deeper, deeper, deeper mission that we have," Ocasio-Cortez said in Greeley. "Elections, they come and go. We do our work, we set the board, but in the meantime we need to build our bonds with each other as communities, building community—block associations, neighborhood groups, volunteer groups, church organizations, PTAs. Because community is the most powerful building block we have against fascism, to defeat authoritarianism and to root out corruption."
Crowds at both rallies included fans of Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders as well as Democratic-leaning voters looking for answers in the face of electoral losses and aggressive policies from the Trump Administration. It mirrored sentiments heard at Democratic town halls across Colorado this week. In speaking to voters in Greeley, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez seemed to represent something beyond what the Democratic party is currently offering.
"I'm really concerned about poor people in the United States, working class," Bonnie Auslander of Lyons said in Greeley. "I'm really disappointed that the Democrats in some sense seem to have abandoned working-class people. And this is something I really admire about Bernie and AOC."
"I'm not interested in this centrist, Democratic message of staying the course," she said.
The rally in Denver was one of the largest political events in recent memory, dating back to the Women's March in 2017. The rally in Greeley matched a trend since the 2024 election: large crowd sizes showing up for Sanders in currently red districts. On the UNC campus about 4,000 packed inside the arena and 8,000 watched from livestreams outside. Both parties consider Colorado's 8th Congressional District one of the most competitive in the country. Current GOP Rep. Gabe Evans beat former Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo by a slim margin last fall. The national tour by Sanders has focused on congressional swing districts currently held by Republicans, such as Kenosha and Altoona in Wisconsin. At the Greeley rally, Ocasio-Cortez called out Evans on multiple occasions.
"I hear that you have a representative that has not done a town hall," Ocasio-Cortez said, pointing to a recommendation by Republican leaders in Congress that their members not hold in-person town halls.
Evans was not available for comment Friday.
Rallies in the Midwest attracted tens of thousands of people–exceeding the senator's own team’s expectations. At those events, he likened the current political moment to historical movements like the American Revolution and the Abolitionist Movement.
Friday afternoon's Greeley rally had a similar environment with thousands of people watching from outside the arena; many sitting in lawn chairs or on picnic blankets; kids watching from parents shoulders and people climbing trees just to peak at a jumbotron. The crowd included many older voters as well as younger parents with their children, with a strong proportion of women.
"Our job though is not just to play defensive. We've got to get on the offensive as well," Sanders said. "And that means having a vision of where we as the wealthiest nation on earth, the longest standing democracy on the planet. Where do we want to go? What kind of nation do we want to become?"
While the rallies have the energy of a presidential campaign, Sanders says he's not running for president again. “This is like presidential campaign rallies, isn’t it? But I’m not running for president, and this is not a campaign,” Sanders told The Associated Press earlier this month. “You gotta do what you gotta do. The country’s in trouble and I want to play my role.”
Concerns about federal cuts, Medicaid
Sanders touched on healthcare, campaign finance reform and corruption. A large concern among voters at both rallies were cuts to federal agencies and programs, like Medicaid.
"I'm extremely worried," Greeley resident Helene Hooprich, a long-time Sanders supporter, said. "We can't let the wealthy people take away our funding for government... Anything I can do to support."
"Let's talk about Medicaid and Medicare for a second," Ocasio-Cortez said. "Because your representative gave Evans, you know that guy that hasn't been showing up for the last couple months, maybe he hasn't been showing up because he voted to cut Medicaid."
Colorado’s Medicaid program covers about 1.2 million people, about a quarter of the state’s population. Doctors and experts have warned a GOP-led budget resolution would lead to deep funding cuts for Medicaid, which could lead to clinics closing and more expensive care, particularly in rural areas of the state. Republicans say the program has ballooned in cost and needs to be checked for fraud.
"You know which Coloradans did vote to gut Medicaid and jack up healthcare costs. Gabe Evans and Lauren Boebert right next door," Ocasio-Cortez said.
“If Democrats want to bring a couple of avowed socialists to Weld County to talk about their Green New Deal scams that will crush Colorado oil & gas jobs, I say go for it," Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert said in a statement. "The contrast between them and Republicans like Gabe Evans who will stand up for energy producers, law enforcement officers, and small business owners couldn’t be clearer."
Watch the rallies
- Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to hold rally in Denver on March 21
- Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expect 20,000 at Denver rally
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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