Bernie Sanders might be holding campaign kick-off events in Brooklyn and Chicago this weekend, but he's saving his "official launch event" for Burlington.

The New York and Illinois rallies begin a sweep of early primary states for Sanders, who is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

More:Bernie Sanders set rallies to kick off 2020 presidential campaign - but not in Vermont

The campaign did not specify a date for the Burlington event which will follow his initial campaign tour.

Early primary states

The Sanders campaign said that the senator will travel to the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, as well as California, which moved up its primary to March.

The 2016 California primary was held in June.

The independent senator for Vermont launched his 2016 campaign for president in May 2015 with a big rally on the Burlington waterfront.

More:VT Insights: Bernie Sanders never held VT kickoff rallies

When Sanders ran for reelection to the Senate in 2018, his campaign announced he would hold kickoff rallies around the state in June. By August, the campaign said he had scrapped the rallies in favor of "community events."

Campaign off to fast start

The first week of Sanders' official campaign showed off the grass-roots fundraising that helped propel his unlikely 2016 bid into a one-on-one contest against presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton.

Sanders raised $6 million for 225,000 donors in the first day following his Feb. 19 announcement. On Monday, the campaign announced more than 1 million people had signed up to support the senator's presidential bid.

The campaign touted the numbers as proof of his continued broad support.

In an email sent to his supporters Sanders wrote, "The sign ons include support from all 435 congressional districts in the country and 324,186 new people who were not part of Sanders’ 2016 campaign."

Aki Soga is insights and engagement editor for the Burlington Free Press. Email him at asoga@freepressmedia.com, or chat with him on Twitter: @asoga.