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Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders set a new 2016 attendance record as 15,000 supporters attended a rally for his campaign in Seattle, WA.

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The Sanders campaign announced:

More than 15,000 boisterous supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders packed inside and outside the University of Washington’s Hec Edmunson Pavilion on Saturday.

“The momentum is unbelievable,” Sanders said. “We’ve got 12,000 people here,” he said to roar of the crowd inside the pavilion. “And a few minutes ago, I just talked to 3,000 people outside,” he added, citing a Seattle police estimate.

The big turnouts are sending a powerful message, Sanders said, in arenas and convention centers here and in other cities from Phoenix to Houston to New Orleans to Madison, Wisconsin. (The 11,300 turnout in Phoenix on July 18 was the biggest crowd for any presidential candidate before the rally here in Seattle.)

There is no one else in the 2016 field who is drawing these types of crowds. Hillary Clinton is the only other candidate capable of it, but she is rightly treating this campaign like a marathon. Clinton has intentionally not been holding big rallies.

A main goal of the Sanders campaign is to build a movement to take back the country from billionaires like the Koch brothers. Sanders wants to be the Democratic nominee, but he also has a larger long-term goal. Rallies like the one in Seattle won’t translate to support in Iowa or New Hampshire, but they help to take the candidate’s message national and build the movement.

Sanders is campaigning in the early states, but these rallies show the power and scope of his liberal economic message. Bernie Sanders is proving that ordinary people are fed up all across this country. He has drawn big crowds in every region of the United States. His movement is national, and his message is resonating.

While Hillary Clinton is trying to win an election, Bernie Sanders is out to change the country.