Madison gives Bernie Sanders enthusiastic greeting at campaign rally

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The line outside the Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum is thousands strong and looks like a microcosm of the Madison political world. Joanne Kloppenburg, candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court, hands out fliers for her own campaign while Teddy Shibabaw offers passersby copies of Socialist Alternative. Cyclists bike along the crowd, waving gay pride and American flags to applause. Two hours later, the crowd has nearly filled the 10,000 red seats inside the arena. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is about to speak.

Sanders — a Vermont independent who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president — has been drawing large crowds around the country, but according to Sanders’ Communications Director Michael Briggs, Wednesday’s event in Madison was the largest campaign event yet in the entire 2016 election cycle. The rally drew attendees from all around the state as well as from the broader Midwest region.

In a phone press conference Tuesday morning, Sanders talked about the interest his campaign is generating. “I think the reason that we’re getting great turn-outs all over this country… is that people are anxious to hear about the truth and the reality about what’s happening in the American economy today,” he said. “Those are some of the issues that I have been talking about, I think they are resonating all across this country and I think they’ll resonate in Wisconsin.”

His message resonates with Ashley Weiss, a 24-year-old graduate of UW-Steven’s Point.

“Bernie Sanders is the best candidate for any presidential election held thus far, ever” Weiss declares. She drove down to Madison from Beaver Dam with her parents to arrive at the event three hours early.

“He’s passionate, he tells it like it is, and he’s for the underdog,” agrees Weiss’s mom, Tammy. “He’s not bought and paid for.”

When Sanders took the stage, the crowd went into frenzy.

For an hour he spoke about income inequality, the importance of trade unions, free public higher education, and election finance reform. He also advocated breaking up big banks, creating a federal jobs program, employing a single payer health insurance system, creating a “new criminal justice system,” and “police department reform.”

In all, Sanders received more than 50 ovations, including several when he disparaged Gov. Walker’s labor policies and his ties to wealthy donors. During Tuesday’s press conference Sanders went into greater detail about his views on Walker.

“Based on his record as governor of Wisconsin, needless to say, I’m strongly opposed to his agenda,” he said. “I think we need leadership in this country that stands up for working families, that’s prepared to take on the big money interests today that have so much power and so much influence… I suspect that Governor Walker’s views are very different than that.”

Sanders ended his speech with a plea.

“Please think big, not small,” he said. “Our vision should be that in the wealthiest country in the history of this world, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.”

Roger Clark, a Madison native and retired teamster, volunteered at the event.

“Bernie’s policies are spot on. He doesn’t BS people, he speaks the truth. He doesn’t run negative campaigns cause he doesn’t have to,” says Clark, a campaign veteran who volunteered for Bobby Kennedy in 1968. “I’ve been doing this for a long time and I think this is our best shot at making a big change.”