DYERSVILLE, Ia. — With the sun setting behind left field, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont stood on the pitcher’s mound at the Field of Dreams on Monday and drew a parallel to his presidential campaign.

Everyone remembers the takeaway from the Kevin Costner movie, he said: If you build it, they will come. Sanders then paraphrased a Nelson Mandela quote that he cited throughout his campaign events Monday: Everything is impossible until it happens.

“In making it happen," Sanders, an independent who is seeking the Democratic nomination, said, "I’m not just talking about this campaign. I’m talking about transforming America.” He then listed his platforms: health care for all, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, free tuition, canceling student loan debt and fighting climate change.

“If we have the courage to think big, if we have the courage to take on the greed of the powerful special interests who dominate our economic and political life … If we stand together for a common purpose, we can fulfill that dream,” he said.

Sanders’ team of mostly Iowa campaign staffers ended up falling 14-8 to a team mostly made up of members of Cedar Rapids’ Leaders Believers Achievers Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to building youth leadership through sports. Sanders knocked in the final run for his side with a base hit.

Sanders took the loss in stride, calling it a wonderful way to spend a beautiful evening.

The game capped a day of campaigning in Iowa for Sanders that included meeting with labor leaders, holding a labor-themed town hall, a field office rally and a backyard ice cream social at one of the first homes to host him during his 2015 campaign.

David Johnson and Jennie Embree, the couple that hosted Sanders, said the May 2015 event drew maybe a couple hundred people. Monday's event had double that, they estimated, and Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon was there, too. It was one of several stops Sarandon made with Sanders in Iowa Monday.

Embree, in a refrain Sanders also uses, remembered when proposals such as a $15 minimum wage were considered impossible. Now, several states and retail behemoth Amazon have bumped their minimum wages $15-an-hour.

“Being ahead of the curve in politics is painful,” Johnson said.

A group of friends, all University of Iowa students or recent graduates, left the backyard gathering giddy.

“It made me want to cry,” Marcus Pixley, the recent graduate, said. “In a good way.”

Pixley said he had $22,000 in student loan debt when he graduated with degrees in English and Russian. As a first-generation college student, he thought a degree would be a ticket upward, even if he didn’t expect to make a lot of money. Sanders’ proposal to cancel student debt is freeing, he said.

“Just the smallest glimmer makes me want to throw in my full support,” Pixley said.

Not all were convinced by Sanders, though.

Seth Dickson, who lives in Galesburg, Illinois, but commutes to a union job in Davenport, didn’t take Sanders’ answer at a union town hall there Monday morning well. He asked about losing his union health care if “Medicare for All,” Sanders’ signature health care proposal, went into effect. Sanders argued the system would free people from health care costs, and free union negotiators up to bargain for benefits other than health care.

Dickson, 24, said he wasn’t convinced. He identified himself afterward as a supporter of President Donald Trump although he backed Sanders in the primary in 2016.

The economy and what Dickson described as political violence fueled by left-wing protesters in the pacific northwest swayed him to support Trump, he said. And if both Medicare for All and a $15-an-hour minimum wage went into effect, he said he wondered what would happen to his $20-plus-an-hour union job.

“(My employers) cover everything,” Dickson said after the town hall. “Why do you want to put me on state-run health care and raise my taxes?”

Nick Coltrain is a politics and data reporter for the Register. Reach him at ncoltrain@registermedia.com or at 515-284-8361. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.