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Sometime last summer, a handful of Tulsans began discussing how to join in Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ July volunteer teleconference.

At first they planned to meet at someone’s home and watch the teleconference on a laptop. Then they decided they would need several laptops.

Then they realized they were going to need a room.

Then they realized they would need a really big room.

They wound up with 150 people at the Transport Workers Union Hall, with several smaller Bernie-ite gatherings in the metro area.

Since then, Sanders events in Tulsa have drawn steady, enthusiastic crowds in the hundreds. A Feel the Bern salsa, made in Oklahoma City, has found a national market.

How all of that translates into votes remains a mystery, but strange as it seems, one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate is now seen as a threat to Hillary Clinton in the March 1 Oklahoma Democratic Party primary.

One public poll last week had Sanders within 2 percentage points of Clinton, but even before that the Sanders campaign was investing a surprising amount in the state.