Standing in front of an overflowing crowd at the Iowa State Fair on Sunday, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders began with a thank you to Iowans.

From the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox stage, the senator from Vermont said Iowans played "an extraordinary role in transforming politics in America."

Iowa caucusgoers in 2016 propelled Sanders to within a third of a percentage point of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's showing in the first-in-the-nation caucuses. In nearly four years since, he said the Democratic Party and the 2020 field have moved decisively toward his politics as a Democratic socialist.

► More:Watch Bernie Sanders' full speech at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox

► Soapbox season: Complete coverage of every presidential candidate's appearance at the 2019 Iowa State Fair

Seven states have adopted his $15-an-hour minimum wage proposal, as has the U.S. House of Representatives. And variations on universal health care, including his "Medicare for All" single-payer proposal, have become standard among much of the Democratic field. His take on Medicare for All would end deductibles, co-pays and premiums paid to health insurance companies, and would include dental and vision coverage, among other features.

"When I came here four years ago, many of the ideas that I talked about, at that point, seemed very, very radical and kind of extreme," Sanders said at a town hall before the Soapbox. "Well, it turned out they were not so radical or extreme for the people of Iowa."

Most of his Soapbox speech was spent championing his policies of workers' rights, fighting climate change and, with the most direct through-line of his philosophy, hammering inequality between the majority of people and the wealthiest corporations and people. He asked Iowans to again propel his campaign forward.

"The only way change ever takes place is when millions of people stand up and say, loudly and clearly, enough is enough," Sanders said.

He also blasted President Donald Trump as racist, a xenophobe, sexist, religious bigot and a pathological liar in a state where Trump finished 9 percentage points over Clinton in the general election. That wasn't apparent by the crowd, however. A handful of pro-Trump signs shot up in the sea of people, but cheers often punctuated Sanders' speech.

Sanders drew thousands to hear him speak, though the Soapbox format doesn’t allow for exact counts. The crowd appeared comparable in number to the one U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts drew on Saturday.

"We do not have the luxury of becoming depressed, the luxury of throwing our hands up in despair," Sanders said. "This is the moment history will judge us by. This is the moment we stand up to racism and divisiveness. This is the moment we bring our people together and create an economy and a government not dominated by the billionaires, but an economy and a government that works for all of us."

Nick Coltrain is a politics and data reporter for the Register. Reach him at ncoltrain@registermedia.com or at 515-284-8361.

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