Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a United Steel Workers Local 1999 rally in Indianapolis, Friday, April 29, 2016. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

By Zach Evans of the Courier and Press

Several thousand people are expected Downtown Monday morning for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' campaign rally ahead of the Tuesday primary.

But local law enforcement say don't expect the same numbers -- or fervor -- as last week's Donald Trump rally.

Sanders, who's trailing Hillary Clinton in the primary race, will hold a rally at Old National Events Plaza. Doors open at 8 a.m. with the event starting at 10 a.m.

The exhibit rooms will be standing room only on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Sanders will be the third White House hopeful to assemble at Old National Events Plaza in the last week. Republican candidate Ted Cruz had a crowd of about 1,000 last Sunday, and Republican front-runner Donald Trump brought in about 12,000 for his rally Thursday.

Sheriff Dave Wedding expects several thousand Downtown for the rally on Monday, but expects a calmer atmosphere.

"I don't think Bernie will bring the dynamics that Donald Trump did. I think the crowd will be smaller, and there won't be as much tension in the air," Wedding said.

Despite issues at other Trump rallies across the country, including one in California that included arrests and violence between protesters and rally-goers hours after his Evansville stop, there were few issues between protesters and attendees at the Trump event Thursday — except for a protester arrested on suspicion of "mooning."

Sanders, who's had a campaign office in town for more than a month, is the first Democratic presidential candidate to visit Evansville.

Clinton has had very little presence in Southwestern Indiana this primary election. There is no Clinton campaign headquarters in Evansville, and she's had no campaign stops in the region so far.

Former President Bill Clinton made a pair of small stops in town — a private speech with union labor officials and local Democrats and a meet-and-greet at Penny Lane Coffeehouse.

In 2008, when she was chasing then Sen. Barack Obama's delegate lead, Clinton and her surrogates made a handful of stops in the region. Clinton narrowly won Indiana, including Vanderburgh County, eight years ago.

The margin is thin, but Clinton has polled better than Sanders in Indiana this month, so far.

In an NBC-Wall Street Journal-Marist College poll (pdf) published Sunday, Clinton had a slim edge over Sanders, with 50 percent of likely Democratic primary voters saying they'd vote for her and 46 percent saying they'd vote for Sanders. That four percent split is less than the poll's 4.6 percent margin of error.

Three percent of respondents were undecided in the poll.