'It's a dire time': Bernie Sanders, AOC draw 12,000-plus to Idaho rally

Sarah Cutler, Idaho Statesman on Apr 14, 2025

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The Bernie supporters were outside the rally hours before it began.

They flocked to Nampa’s Ford Idaho Center on Monday afternoon wearing gear from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ past presidential campaigns, T-shirts that read “resist,” “Hands off!” and “We the People.”

Attending Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop, they voiced anger about national politics: the deportations of undocumented immigrants — and people deported by mistake; rollbacks of women’s rights and access to abortion; what they see as the audacity of the Trump administration to cut health and other benefits, even as it slashed jobs with the Department of Government Efficiency and imposed — and rescinded — tariffs.

But in a shout-out to local issues, many wore shirts that read “Everyone is welcome here” — a nod to the classroom sign a West Ada teacher was told to take down in March. She refused, and the episode rose to national prominence.

“I think this represents Idaho,” said Shirley Hurley, who wore an “Everyone is welcome here” shirt to the rally, along with rainbow LGBTQ+ Pride earrings. She said she lives in the North End off Harrison Boulevard — where an annual display of Pride flags is in jeopardy because of the Republican-dominated Idaho Legislature.

She told the Idaho Statesman that she opposes the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration, but she thinks Idaho has been taking even more extreme stances.

Thousands descended on the arena Monday, filling both the lower and upper tiers, and half of the floor, by the time the event’s speaking portion began at 6 p.m. Both Sanders, I-Vermont, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., were on hand to decry the “oligarchy” they say the U.S. is becoming.

The Idaho Center’s capacity is listed at 12,200, depending on the arrangement of the stage. Rally organizers said they closed the venue’s doors at 12,500.

Several there to support the “Fighting Oligarchy” message expressed dread about the direction the U.S. was headed in Trump’s second term — and a sense that Sanders’ and Ocasio-Cortez’s previous warnings were coming true.

“They’ve spoken about things that people have not been paying attention to,” Silas Randall said. “And now it feels like, I don’t want to say it’s too late, but it feels like it’s a dire time.”

Others, including Megan Pando, appreciated that the duo offered a model for taking action in opposition to the Trump administration.

“A lot of times you see, on the Democratic side, they tell you to be angry — and then just go back to their job,” she said.

Instead, Sanders and AOC have been trotting across the U.S. They were in Salt Lake City on Sunday night, will be in California on Tuesday, and will head to Missoula, Montana, on Wednesday — all part of their tour of the West.

Some said they were new to Sanders’ message and came with an open mind. Some, such as Esteban Galan, said they were longtime Sanders supporters who attended to contribute to visibility in a deep-red state.

Democrats were “born and raised” in Idaho, Galan said. “We’re not imported from anywhere. We’re the backbone of our communities. We are nonprofit workers, we are federal workers, we are people who are investing in each other,” he told the Statesman.

Sanders’ message has long resonated in Idaho. In the 2016 presidential primary, he handily defeated Hillary Clinton in the Democratic caucus, which had a record-breaking turnout.

Jaclyn Kettler, a political science professor at Boise State University. said Sanders was able to tap into Idaho’s longstanding populist bent and “a real push” against elites and political insiders. It’s the same predisposition, she said, that has attracted many Idahoans to Trump.

(Trump lost the 2016 Republican primary in Idaho to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, before winning handily in 2020 and ‘24.)

Galan and other attendees said that to them, Sanders’ message was about class solidarity, not about party.

“It really comes down to, we’re fighting the billionaire class,” he said. “Regardless of ideology, beliefs or how you pray, we all are still just trying to get to the next month, from paycheck to paycheck.”

Dozens of counter-protesters set up camp outside the arena, holding Trump signs and waving a DOGE flag — a reference to the controversial new department led by billionaire Elon Musk. Galan directed part of his comments to them.

“What I love about (Sanders’) message is that it’s for everybody,” Galan said. “(To) the Trump folks outside, come on inside, because it’s for you, too. You’re angry. You’re upset because America is not working for you. This is for you.”

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