On Saturday, an estimated 25,000 people gathered in New York City to hear Vermont Senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders speak at his first rally since he survived a heart attack in Las Vegas just eighteen days prior. At this rally, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke highly of the senator—and gave her official endorsement for his presidential candidacy. But the progressive Congresswoman wasn’t the only person there excited about Sanders—the crowd, which seems to be the biggest yet in this election cycle, was overjoyed.
“I am more than ready to take on the greed and corruption of the corporate elite and their apologists. And I am more ready than ever to create a government based on the principles of justice,” Sanders told the energetic, massive crowd. “To put it bluntly: I am back.”
“When I was a child that relied on CHIP so that I could see a doctor, Bernie Sanders fought for a single-payer health care system,” Ocasio-Cortez told the enormous crowd in Queensbridge Park. “When the federal government decided to discriminate and abandon my queer family and friends, Bernie Sanders was putting his career on the line for us.”
Speaking of her time in Congress and the challenges she’s faced as a progressive, Ocasio-Cortez said, “Every trick in the book, psychological and otherwise, is used to get us to abandon the working class.” Which is, by the way, probably very true.
To put the size of this rally in perspective, it exceeds Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Washington Square Park rally (which was an estimated 20,000 people) and the Sen. Kamala Harris launch announcement made in Oakland, California, which was also an estimated 20,000. To be sure: All of these crowd sizes are impressive.
Of course, Ocasio-Cortez’s appearance wasn’t a surprise to most. Sanders had floated that a “special guest” would appear at his rally at the last Democratic debate, and it was soon confirmed that Ocasio-Cortez (as well as Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib) would endorse him.
People, including fans of the freshman Congresswoman, have a lot of feelings about her choice to endorse Sanders. Without a doubt, Sanders is her ideological match, so in terms of the issues, it shouldn’t be all that surprising. Ocasio-Cortez also volunteered as an organizer for the Vermont senator’s presidential campaign in 2016. For months, people have speculated that Warren might get Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement, however, as she’d praised both candidates in the past.
After her endorsement, Ocasio-Cortez gave an interview to CBS News, where she confirmed the obvious: Rather than being a matter of “why not X candidate?,” the endorsement was about what felt most genuine to her values. The endorsement is an "authentic decision to let people know how I feel and where I am,” she told the news station.
Here’s what Twitter had to say:
Here’s the full (close to three hours!) live stream from the rally: