LONG BEACH — Michelle Cerulle showed up Tuesday night for a Bernie Sanders rally wearing what she called an “original” Sanders T-shirt, a white-on-blue “Feel the Bern” number she bought in 2016 at an Irvine rally that she remembers drawing 25,000 fans of the Vermont senator’s first run for president.

“We’re the old-school Bernie crowd,” said Cerulle, 58, a insurance agent from Belmont Shore who attended with her husband Leonard, 84.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)



A strong police presence is on hand as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)



A pro-Bernie, ant-Trump supporter attends a Bernie Sanders campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Long Beach City College in Long Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Perhaps fewer than they were four years ago, but still as determined as their hero, Sanders supporters young and old crowded into the quad at Long Beach City College’s liberal arts campus Tuesday evening to hear the 2020 update of his pitch against “corporate elites” and Republican leaders.

The topic was the self-styled democratic socialist’s standard economic message plus an angry riff on the news of the week, the shootings that killed more than 30 people in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend. Sanders repeated a call he first made Sunday for action to expand background checks for gun buyers and a ban sales of “assault weapons.”

“These are not radical proposals. This is what the American people want,” Sanders thundered above loud cheers.

“Tonight I say to the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell: Have the guts to stand up for the American people. Have the guts to stand up to the NRA. Bring us (the Senate) back to Washington and let us pass common-sense gun solutions.”

Many in the crowd of more than a thousand responded by chanting “Moscow Mitch,” the nickname pinned on McConnell by Democrats upset at his refusal to entertain legislation aimed at protecting U.S. election from foreign interference.

The wide-ranging, 50-minute speech at the Long Beach rally capped a day of campaigning for Sanders that included a noontime town hall meeting on affordable housing at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, as well as scheduled visits to housing and homeless services programs in Los Angeles.

Several of the more than 20 candidates vying to be the Democrat challenging President Trump in 2020 came to California this week for a forum Monday in San Diego hosted by the Hispanic civil rights organization UnidosUS.

That was only the latest enticement for presidential contenders to visit California. They’ve been campaigning here more than usual this year, drawn in part by the importance of the state’s primary on March 3, 2020.

The primary promising the nation’s largest trove of nominating delegates has been moved from its traditional place in June and now is part of the Super Tuesday batch of more than a dozen Democratic state contests, following the caucuses and primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. A win in California is a huge step toward the nomination.

It was in California in June 2016 that Sanders’ challenge to Hillary Clinton officially ended as Clinton’s primary victories in California and New Jersey on the same day gave her a majority of pledged delegates to that year’s Democratic convention.

Sanders’ own prospects for 2020 don’t seem to have improved since he made his first California appearance this year at a March 20 rally at UCLA to support striking campus workers.

Polls in March and April showed Sanders second among Democrats nationwide (averaging 24%) and in California (18%), trailing only former Vice President Joe Biden, slightly ahead of California Sen. Kamala Harris.

Polls in the past few weeks have shown Sanders still second (17%) to Biden nationally, but down in third or fourth (16%-18%) in California, trailing not only Biden and Harris but possibly Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren too.

Warren’s prominence is seen as ominous for Sanders’ presidential bid. The senators are battling to be the choice of voters who favor big changes in the economic system, which both see as unfairly favoring corporations over workers.

Sanders faces more opponents and obstacles in 2020 than he did four years ago, said Jack Pitney, professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College.

“In 2016, he was the Democratic Anti-Clinton,” PItney said by email. “Now he is one progressive among several. And he is four years older.”

Sanders will turn 78 on Sept. 8.

Supporters in a quarter-mile-long queue 90 minutes before the rally Tuesday said they’re undeterred.

“We’re feeling the Bern twice as much this time,” said Bianca Salgado, 23, who works for a Whittier nonprofit and likes Sanders’ ideas on Medicare for all and government-funded college tuition.

Salgado said Warren would be her second choice.

But others believe that, so far in this election cycle, Sanders has yet to catch fire the way he did in ’16.

“There was more enthusiasm four years ago. I think it’s a little diluted with so many candidates,” said Albert Licano, a teacher from Long Beach.

“I think it’ll pick up,” Licano added.

Robb Rugeroni, a middle-school teacher from Long Beach, said he liked what he heard in Sanders’ speech about the senator’s support for unions and public education.

Rugeroni voted for Sanders in 2016 but isn’t sure what he’ll do next year. He likes Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s focus on climate change.

“There’s so many candidates,” he said. “I’ve got to really do my homework.”