Bernie Sanders urges Iowa crowd of 2,500 to 'think big'

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Ia. – Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders attracted nearly 2,500 people to listen Friday night to his passionate call for "a massive jobs program," free public college education and two weeks of mandatory paid vacation for all working Americans — all as part of a political revolution led by the people.

It was the Vermont U.S. senator's biggest crowd in Iowa yet, and it was the largest for any single candidate in the 2016 presidential election cycle here so far.

"Our job is not to think small. It is to think big!" Sanders said, his voice booming, during a 74-minute speech in a cavernous room at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs. "We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world. There is nothing that we cannot accomplish if we stand together!"

One audience member, 59-year-old Council Bluffs Democrat Richard Grondek, said he didn't think Sanders had a realistic chance of winning the Iowa caucuses "until he started drawing crowds like this."

"This feels like the Obama synergy the first time he ran," Grondek said. "The crowds just kept getting bigger and bigger."

Grondek recalled going to see three candidates in Council Bluffs on New Year's Day just days before the 2008 caucuses: Clinton in the morning, Obama in the afternoon, John Edwards at night. "And none of the crowds were this big," he said.

Sanders drew 800 at an event at Drake University last month, and as his popularity climbs with Democratic voters, he has drawn stadium-sized audiences outside of Iowa — including 5,000 in Minnesota and 10,000 in Wisconsin recently.

None of the other three Democratic White House hopefuls — former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and former Virginia U.S. Sen. Jim Webb — have logged crowd counts as big in Iowa. Clinton attracted 700 in Des Moines last month when she held her first public rally. O'Malley was also in Iowa on Friday, and his biggest event of the day was at a coffeehouse in Newton, where he drew about 60 people.

Sanders' crowd Friday night to cap the second of a three-day Iowa tour was racially diverse, with a prominent youth presence and representation from multiple states, including Nebraska and Kansas.

Several Iowans said they're undecided about whom to caucus for, but they're beginning to lean toward Sanders.

Mary Andrie, a retired special education teacher from Council Bluffs, said her son and daughter-in-law are leaning Sanders, and they're pulling her his way, too.

"I was a really staunch Clinton candidate. I'm a woman and I really want a woman to be president," Andrie said. "But she's not as strong a candidate as she was. She doesn't quite have the energy she had before. There's something lacking there. I haven't quite figured out what it is."

Andrie said she's also "really concerned because Hillary's not getting young people out. They're so discouraged because they wanted so much more from Obama than what he gave them." Sanders is the kind of candidate that can fire up the youth, she said.

Earlier in the day, after his event in Storm Lake that pulled in 140 people, Sanders told reporters that his campaign is "putting together a strong infrastructure which is going to give us a strong chance of winning Iowa."

But he came under question Friday for his ability to unite Democrats.

Jason Winter, 28, of Sibley said he's worried about building up the party in rural Iowa, where he said it's difficult to get progressives elected to statewide and local offices. Winter, who works as an organizer for the National Education Association in South Dakota, asked Sanders about his plans for uniting the party at an event in Sheldon on Friday morning.

Sanders responded by touting a track record of engaging voters. During a run for mayor of Burlington, Vt., he said he doubled voter turnout by making local government relevant to working-class citizens. Sanders said he's committed to building the Democratic Party, even in very conservative states.

"If you claim to be the party of the working people — if that's what the Democrats are supposed to be, in the legacy of F.D.R., even Harry Truman — how do you abandon the poorest states in America and not talk to those people?" Sanders said to a crowd in Sheldon. "How are you not running strong candidates, putting money into those areas?"

He said Republicans are good at capitalizing on wedge issues such as abortion, gay rights and immigration. But he said Democrats need to go on the offensive by relentlessly focusing on economic issues.

"What you've got to do is say to people, 'Look, we may disagree on that issue, but don't you think your kid has a right to a college education? Don't you think you deserve a decent-paying job? Do you really believe we should be giving tax breaks to millionaires?' " Sanders said. "Those are the issues we've got to take to working people all over this country."

Winter said he's drawn to that message, but still wonders about Sanders' party loyalty. Winter is a longtime Hillary Clinton fan, having served as one of her delegates during her last presidential run in 2008.

"But I came here because I like what Bernie's talking about," Winter said. "If he can show he's committed to the party, I would be open to supporting him."

After stumping in Sheldon, a sweat-soaked Sanders addressed an elbow-to-elbow crowd at a cafe in downtown Storm Lake.

"I liked everything he said," said 77-year-old Koy Wolverton, a retired librarian. "But I'm a lifelong Democrat."

The senator went on to march alongside supporters in Denison's Independence Day Parade on Friday afternoon.

In Denison, local plumber Brian O'Neal convinced Sanders to climb aboard his antique John Deere tractor to pose for a picture. He said Sanders seems to be more down-to-earth than other candidates, especially those running on the right.

"Most of the GOP candidates tell you what you what they think you want to hear," O'Neal said. "But Bernie tells you what you ought to hear."

Still, O'Neal, a Democrat, isn't fully committing to one candidate.

"There's still a long time to go yet," he said.

Sanders and his wife, Jane, marched alongside 36 supporters in the town's Independence Day Parade, which also included Clinton supporters, a contingency of anti-abortion activists and local politicians and businesses. Sanders, wearing worn sneakers and a New England College hat, shook hands with locals who stood along the route or sat on lawn chairs as supporters tossed candy.

"Give 'em hell, Bernie!" one bystander yelled.

After introducing herself to one family sitting on a tailgate on the route, Jane Sanders received a puzzled look.

"This is the first I've heard of you guys," a woman said.

"Well," Jane Sanders replied, "hopefully it won't be the last."

AT THE EVENTS

SETTING: A community room in a downtown Sheldon city building, a coffee shop and cafe in Storm Lake and a downtown parade in Denison.

CROWD: In Sheldon, about 180 people packed into a community room, with a few supporters standing out in a lobby. In Storm Lake, 140 supporters packed the narrow Better Day Cafe from its front door to the exit and into the alley. In Denison, 36 people marched along Sanders in the Independence Day parade.

REACTION: His stump speeches were interrupted several times for applause. Supporters especially liked Sanders' rhetoric on curbing income inequality, taking on Wall Street and getting money out of politics.

OTHER STOPS: Mid-America Center, Council Bluffs.

WHAT'S NEXT: Sanders continues his three-day Iowa tour with stops in Creston, Waukee and Cedar Rapids. For details, go to DesMoines Register.com/candidate tracker.