Voters filled the large banquet hall yesterday at Southern New Hampshire University to support Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who gave an impassioned speech on income inequality and boasted he’s gaining traction against fellow presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.

“Something happened on the way to a coronation,” he told the cheering crowd. “It was me.”

Sanders said his commitment to changing the plight of a shrinking middle class resonates with a large portion of the country.

“The American people are sick and tired of establishment politics,” Sanders said. “The American people understand that corporate greed is destroying our country.”

He added, “This campaign is not about Bernie Sanders. It’s not about Hillary Clinton, it’s not about Jeb Bush. It’s not even about Donald Trump. It’s about you, it’s about your kids, it’s about your parents. It’s about the future of our planet.”

The audience whistled and applauded when Sanders reminded the crowd of his status as the only presidential candidate without a super PAC, chanting “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!”

It’s the absence of Wall Street ties and a longtime commitment to even wealth-distribution that could give Sanders an edge over Clinton, said Dan Mulcare, associate professor of political science at Salem State University.

“Hillary is definitely slipping a little bit right now, and it’s not clear whether Sanders will be able to win that vacuum,” he said. “In the next five or six months there could be more of a groundswell as he continues to make appearances.”

Though Clinton has name recognition and support from the Democratic elite, income inequality is an issue that Sanders has championed for years, Mulcare said.

“She’s trying to take up the dissatisfaction with the growing gap between the rich and the poor, and that’s where Bernie Sanders has been for his whole career,” he said.

But, Mulcare said, it remains to be seen whether that will be enough to win the nomination.

Sanders said wealth disparity is “the great moral issue of our time.”

“Today well over 50 percent of new income is going to the top 1 percent,” he said. “You are living in a rigged economy.”

He added that while unemployment rates are down to 5.3 percent, the real numbers are above 10 percent when the issue of forced part-time employment is considered.

He said unemployment has hit young adults particularly hard.

“We are turning our backs on an entire generation of young people,” he said.