Over 34,000 people came to Denver’s Civic Center Park for a rally featuring U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens) Friday afternoon.
As part of Sen. Sanders’ and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, they visited both Greeley and Denver, with the latter’s attendance making it the largest rally organized by a politician in Colorado since 2008. The “Fighting Oligarchy” tour is going across the country with this week focusing on the American Southwest. The pair previously stopped in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Tempe, Arizona, with plans to speak in Tuscon today.
“We’re ready to fight oligarchy, save our democracy, and stand up against the tons of injustices that are happening in our country, what I think is strictly un-American and shameful” Said Claire Molle from Estes Park at the Denver event. “You feel a little bit helpless sometimes, but [events] like this where we have our power.”
“I hope that we can gain more support for Ukraine,” Molle continued. “I hope we can stand up for immigrants and things like social security. Scrapping the Department of Education is atrocious and I’m pretty passionate about the national parks and making sure we’re able to preserve those and stop firing park rangers.”
“I want to make sure we get our government back in place,” said Louise Monzon from Aurora. “I am hoping to find out what the Democrats are doing for us, even though they [Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez] are helping and getting started what the Democrats are going to be doing, hopefully down the line. I am excited to get in here with everyone else, so we’re going to show everyone outside of this rally that it’s time to get Trump and Elon out. I want them to leave Social Security alone, same with Medicaid and Medicare. We’ve worked so hard to get ourselves to that point if you’re that age — which I am– to where I want them to leave my life alone and let me live happily.”
“I want to hear what Bernie and Alexandria have to say about Trump and Musk and the mess we’re in right now,” said George Jackson who drove up from Castle Rock. “I am pretty upset about the direction our country is going. We are losing our grip on our democracy. I am really ticked off about letting all those January 6th rioters go and the way the Trump administration is treating immigrants…. I want our elected officials to see this going on, especially if they’re Republicans and I want them to stop this mess.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders drew loud applause and cheers from the crowd, lambasting President Donald Trump’s ties to billionaire Elon Musk and his role with the Department of Government Efficiency that has been enacting widespread cuts to the federal workforce and programs.
“I want to thank each and every one of you for making the effort to be here today,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “In fact, I think we’re all here together because we share in the frustration and heartache that comes from watching those in power actively tear down or refuse to fight for working Americans like us. We’re here together because an extreme concentration of power and corruption is taking over this country like never before. And we are here, most importantly, because we know that a better world is possible. But to get there, we need to be honest about where we are. We are witnessing an oligarchy in America and those with the most economic, political, and technological power destroy the public good to enrich themselves, while millions of Americans pay the price and our political system is ill-prepared for this kind of abuse of power. In fact, much of our political system enables it, starting with the role of money in politics.”
“I’m here to remind you, that we are not powerless in this moment. People are starting to put the pieces together and, ironically, some of the most divisive forces in our country are actually bringing more of us together than ever before,” Ocasio-Cortez went on. “The same billionaires who are taking a wrecking ball to our country derive power from dividing working people, they specialize in getting us to turn against one another along lines of left and right, race and gender, creed, and culture, and it’s all to keep us distracted because the last thing they want is for us to realize that the real division and the real harm in this country is how endless greed is costing the lives of everyone else.”
Ocasio-Cortez hoisted criticism on some leaders within her own Democratic caucus who broke ranks to help Republicans pass their agenda.
“This isn’t just about Republicans, we need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us too. That means communities choose and vote for Democrats and elected officials who know how to stand for the working class.”
Ocasio-Cortez praised two representatives from Colorado, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Denver), who co-sponsors a Medicare For All bill, and Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Lakewood) who was in the audience.
“Colorado, you elected this champion [Pettersen], she got on a plane with a 4-week-old baby to vote no to this resolution,” Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd.
While all of the Democratic members of the Colorado delegation voted against a recent budget resolution that included massive spending cuts to social programs.
Ocasio-Cortez said that the ideas that some paint as ‘radical’ are common sense to her, and that government needs to do more to provide for its citizens.
“I don’t believe in health care, labor, and human dignity because I am an extremist,” Ocasio-Cortez told the rally. “I believe these things because I was a waitress. Because I scrubbed toilets with my mom to afford school. Because I worked double shifts to keep the lights on. Because I did lose my dad as a kid and had to see my mom open the hospital bills and I don’t want us to live like this anymore. We deserve better.”
Some in the crowd chanted at Ocasio-Cortez to run for president or primary New York Senator Chuck Schumer after he became one of the ten Democratic Senators to help pass the Republican budget proposal.
“In the hundred of rallies that I have done, we have never, ever had a rally as large as this,” Sanders said as he took the stage. “And Denver, your presence here today is not just significant for Colorado. You are sending a profound message all over the world. The whole world is watching and they want to know if the people of America are going to stand up to Trumpism, oligarchy, and authoritarianism.”
The crowd flowing into Denver’s Civic Center Park was still wrapped around City Hall as the 83-year-old, progressive firebrand began to deliver his remarks. Sanders recounted attending President Trump’s second inauguration where behind the president stood Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and other extremely wealthy figures with ties to the President.
“People fought and died to create a democratic society and Trump cannot take that away.” Sanders went on to add that the founders of America built the separation of powers into our constitution because they took on “the most powerful person in the world at that time, the King of England,” and that no one intended for one person to have “all the power” in the U.S.
“When I was in elementary school, we learned how the government was formed, the constitutional convention and all that stuff,” Sanders said. “I should have studied harder, but Trump should have learned it in the first place.”
Sanders urged attendees to become involved in local organizing. “We can organize at the grassroots level, we can become strong trade unionists, we can run for school board or president of the United States,” Sanders said. “We’re not going to let the billionaire class have all of the power.”
Although the rallies had a similar energy to that of a presidential campaign, Sanders, who ran in 2016 and 2020, said he would not be running for president again. “This is like presidential campaign rallies, isn’t it? But I’m not running for president, and this is not a campaign,” Sanders told The Associated Press. “You gotta do what you gotta do. The country’s in trouble and I want to play my role.”
“A few years ago, when people used to word oligarchy, people didn’t what I was talking about. Well, they know what I’m talking about now,” Sanders told the crowd. “You’ve got to be dumb, blind, or deaf not to see what’s going on.”
Labor Leaders Featured Heavily at the Rally
The senator and congresswoman were introduced by a slate of union leaders, namely Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, and Liz Waddick, vice president of the Colorado Education Association (the largest labor union in Colorado) and a Spanish teacher in Summit County. Both Cordova and Waddick argued that state and federal governments should help the average worker and urged the Colorado Legislature to pass the Worker Protection Act, which would remove Colorado’s requirement of a second vote before workers can officially form a union.
Waddick said that the rally was a way to come together and unite the working class and overcome division.
Another labor leader, Jimmy Williams, President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, told the crowd that if Democrats want to win over the American electorate, they must “represent the working class, not the corporate class.”
“The power is here to make real change — generational change, because, at this point in time, this country needs a worker-driven agenda,” Williams told the crowd. “And until the Democratic Party realizes that they have to remove the corporate control that holds them back, we have to show them what that looks like.”
Ahead of the Senator and Congresswoman, Alvaro Bedoya, a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) who Trump fired last Tuesday, addressed the crowd. Bedoya said that those working for the FTC are “fierce corporate watchdogs” that Trump is trying to turn into “little lap dogs for his golfing buddies.” The FTC stopped a merger between Kroger and Albertsons, which operate the King Soopers, City Market, and Safeway grocery chains in Colorado.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, or you’re sick of politics and you can’t watch the news, the FTC has worked for you,” Bedoya said. “And yet, this Tuesday night as I was at my daughter’s gymnastics class, I got an email from the White House claiming that the president was firing me.”
At both the Greeley and Denver events, a few Republican organizers did try to arrange counter-protests. These efforts were spearheaded by former Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine, who is also running to lead the Colorado GOP, the Denver counter-protest attracted five people.
“We’re delivering a clear message that we are against socialism because it destroys a country,” Saine said. “We’re also here to support President Trump. The working class has elected us across the country to represent them.”
Attending with Saine was Weston Imer, who is part of the RNC Youth Advisory Committee. Occasionally, Saine and Imer would take the megaphone to shout: “Say no to socialism.” or “End the Department of Education.”
The stop in Greeley was the result of a promise Ocasio-Cortez made to hold events in districts where Republicans have refused to conduct in-person town halls with their constituents. Republicans are currently pursuing a wide-ranging plan to cut taxes and reduce social spending. According to the event organizers, the Greeley event attracted over 11,000 people.
“Rep. Evans, your constituents say hi!” Ocasio-Cortez posted on social media alongside a video she took from the stage in Greeley.
Party leaders in the GOP have reportedly advised members to not hold town hall events. A spokesperson for Evans’ office told the Denver Post earlier this week that the congressman would only hold town halls “in a way that allows constituents’ concerns to be heard without being drowned out by yelling activists.”
“Usually your first three months on a new job, you are on your best behavior and working your hardest and doing your best,” Ocasio-Cortez told the Denver rally. “If this is the best that you all are getting, I think you deserve better.”
Both Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders criticized Evans and other Republicans for voting for a budget resolution earlier this month that will drastically cut Medicaid and for denying the effects of that resolution.
“Every single House Republican voted to cut Medicaid,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Now they trying to play a game and say, ‘We didn’t do that.’”
The resolution in question requires $880 billion in cuts to be made by the House Energy and Commerce Committee that oversees Medicaid spending. Although Evans’ claim from earlier in the week that there was a “wide range of places where those cost savings can be found,” the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency, estimates that Medicaid makes up 93% of the spending from that committee. This means that the GOP’s budget will require $700 billion in cuts to Medicaid, a 10% reduction in spending, even if all other spending through that committee was cut before it.
Evans was elected to Congress in 2024 when he unseated former Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo in the recently created 8th Congressional district, anchored around Thornton and Greeley. Evans won by a slim margin of 2,596 votes in November, as CD8 continues to be Colorado’s most competitive congressional seat.
In a statement to Colorado Newsline, a spokesperson for Evans’ office said: “Congressman Evans is fighting for lower costs, safer communities, and making the American Dream possible for all Coloradans. His commonsense approach stands in stark contrast to AOC and Bernie Sanders’ extreme, anti-oil and gas rhetoric.”
You can watch Sanders and AOC’s Denver and Greeley rallies here:
