Nearly 200 people attended a rally to see a live-stream video of Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders Wednesday night at Avogadro’s Number. The Vermont Senator Sanders, who was streaming the video all across the nation, used the opportunity to energize and encourage volunteers for his grassroots campaign.
The event in Fort Collins was a collaboration among unofficial support groups for Sanders who decided to come together for the event they called, “Bernie Fest.” Soon before the live-stream, it became standing room only at Avo’s where there is only 170 capacity with overflow going into hallways and the bar.
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Nationally, over 100,000 people RSVP for the event, according to the campaign website. This was the first official national push from the Sanders campaign, which Sanders claimed as a historic event.
“To our knowledge there has never been a political online organizing effort this early in the campaign,” Sanders said in the live-stream.
In his speech Sanders outlined a variety of campaign stances, which included items such as income inequality and addressing problems like institutional racism. The speech was also meant as a rallying point to incentivize people to volunteer for a grassroots campaign that has a long road ahead before the Democratic Primaries in March, when many states — including Colorado — will decide their Democratic party candidate.
After the speech the organizers of the event at Avo’s used it as an opportunity to make sure the crowd was registered, and that they knew how to vote in the caucus come March 1.
“If you want to vote in the primary for Bernie, you have to be a registered Democrat by January 1,” said CSU graduate student and co-organizer of the event, Andrew Bondi.
Collegian Senior reporter Skyler Leonard can be reached at sleonard@collegian.com or on Twitter @Skyler_Leonard.
