Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders seemed to have graduated from underdog status to the real deal last night at a campaign event in Madison, Wisc.
A crowd of 9,600 people nearly maxed out the Veterans Memorial Coliseum's 10,231-person capacity to hear the Vermont independent tout his ultra-progressive credentials, according to Sanders' campaign and arena staff.
The Sanders campaign crowd count in Madison: 9,600 people. Sanders' spox says that comes from the arena staff.
— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) July 2, 2015
"Tonight we have made a little bit of history," a clearly ecstatic and energized Sanders said, according to The Associated Press. "Tonight, we have more people at any meeting for a candidate of president of the United States than any other candidate."
As NPR notes, the only other candidate to draw such a crowd appears to be Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who launched his campaign before 11,000 Liberty University students. However, students living on campus were required to attend, so it's not clear how many came on their own terms.
Sanders, a 73-year-old self-described democratic socialist, has taken on presumed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton from the hard left in an attempt to appeal to liberal Democrats. Most seem quite receptive to his message: Fix wealth inequality, crack down on Wall Street, reform the criminal justice system and increase minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Wednesday night, Sanders also pledged to fight for universal single-payer health care, break up the largest banks and redistribute wealth from the richest to the middle class and poorest, according to CNN.
"The big money interests - Wall Street, corporate America, all of these guys - have so much power that no president can defeat them unless there is an organized grassroots movement making them an offer they can't refuse," he said as the crowd cheered, AP reported.
"When you deny the right of workers to come together in collective bargaining, that's extremism," Sanders said, referencing Wisconsin governor and GOP presidential hopeful Scott Walker. "When you tell a woman that she cannot control her own body, that's extremism."
Calling the crowd his "brothers and sisters," Sanders repeated his desire for a political revolution, adding, "there is nothing that we cannot accomplish."
Sanders has been rising in the primary polls lately, trailing only Clinton, and even statistically tying with the former secretary of state in a recent New Hampshire poll once accounting for the margin of error, reported The Hill.
But Sanders only mentioned his rival once in Wisconsin: "This campaign is not about Bernie Sanders, it is not about Hillary Clinton, it is not about anyone else. It is about you," he said to sustained applause.
"The message is resonating, not just in Wisconsin, but all over America," Sanders told CNN after his speech. "The people are sick and tired of establishment politics, establishment economics. They want real change."
Since launching his campaign in April, Sanders has also called for tuition-free college, a huge government-led jobs program to repair roads and bridges and an expansion of Social Security.
His campaign revealed Thursday that Sanders has raised $15 million from some 250,000 donors since joining the race, reported AP. Clinton's campaign said Tuesday that she has taken in $45 million since mid-April.
"I am more than aware that my opponents will be able to outspend us," Sanders said in Wisconsin. "They may have the money but we have the people. And when the people stand together, we can win."
